Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Horticulture

George Eustice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government plans to publish the horticulture strategy.

George Eustice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with representatives of the horticulture industry on the development of the Horticulture Strategy.

Mark Spencer: The domestic horticulture sector plays an important role in the resilience of our food system as well as an important part of our wider economy. We are delivering for the sector by investing more than £168 million to drive innovation and support food production, and have passed the new Genetic Technology Act to reduce the regulatory burden and unlock the potential of new technologies.Defra regularly engages with the horticulture industry's representatives and our existing stakeholder forums help inform future policy development and support for the sector.Later this year, we will respond to the Labour Review and we will consider if a further tailored action plan is required. I look forward to discussing this and other issues at the upcoming Farm to Fork Summit.

Washing Machines: Microplastics

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on encouraging industry to (a) develop and (b) use low-cost microfibre washing machine filters.

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Plan for Water: our integrated plan for delivering clean and plentiful water, published in April 2023, what progress her Department has made on reducing the levels of microplastics in rivers and oceans.

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to reduce microplastic pollution from water companies.

Rebecca Pow: The United Kingdom is a world leader in tackling plastic pollution, including microplastics. Monitoring of marine litter by the Marine Conservation Society, funded by Defra, tells us that over the last seven years the total litter count on British beaches has decreased significantly - the total median litter count in 2021 was almost three times lower than in 2016. We are continuing to contribute to the development of a new legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, that aims to end plastic pollution by 2040. We want to tackle microplastic pollution wherever possible which is why we introduced a microbead ban and a tax on plastic bags. We recently announced in the Plan for Water that we will change the law to ban the sale of wet wipes containing plastic, subject to public consultation. We will also support the Water UK communications campaign to ‘Bin the Wipe’ and write to the relevant producers and advertising authorities regarding the labelling of wet wipes as ‘flushable’. The Plan for Water also outlined our position that we will expect industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machine and encourage their effective use. With the plan being published only just last month, we are now considering the best actions for its implementation. As a first step, we will look to manufacturers to reduce costs and to provide appropriate evidence of the value of microfibre filters to persuade consumers to invest in them and use them correctly. The UK Water Industry Research project (performed by UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology) reported in April 2022 that wastewater treatment plants remove 99% of microplastics by number and 99.5% by mass. The Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) includes over £7.39 million of commitment from the water industry to further research microplastics removal through wastewater treatment processes to sludge, which may be a source of microplastics to final effluent discharges. An additional investigation sits within the Chemicals Investigation Programme looking at biosolids and microplastics to groundwater. For microplastic monitoring in surface waters and sediments, a pilot study has been completed to develop sampling and analytical protocols that could be used to determine the quantities, loads and types of microplastics and tyre-wear particles in surface waters and sediments. This report will be available post July 2023. We have also funded research to examine wider sources of microplastics, including tyres and textiles. This research will help to inform future policy. Technical experts from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) have also been leading the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment to develop a new indicator for microlitter (including microplastics) in seafloor sediments. This will help us to track progress in reducing plastics in the environment at a regional scale.

Air Pollution

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will update the Local Air Quality Management Technical Guidance 22 to provide more detailed best practices and case studies to help encourage the use by local authorities of small sensors in local air quality management.

Rebecca Pow: Our Local Air Quality Management Technical Guidance 2022 considers the use of low-cost sensors and refers local authorities to existing certification schemes for them. Defra’s Air Quality Expert Group has also provided advice, made available on UK Air, on the use of ‘low-cost‘ air pollution sensors, setting out the key considerations and issues when using these devices. In order to offer further guidance to local authorities, Defra launched a project in 2022 to develop a publicly available specification (PAS) on the use of low-cost sensors. This is in effect a code of practice for the use of such systems for measuring outdoor air pollutants and is scheduled to be delivered in late 2023.

Waste Management: Local Government Finance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to introduce a new (a) household and (b) business waste collections policy; and whether funding will be made available to local authorities to support the delivery of that policy.

Rebecca Pow: In 2021 we published a second consultation on recycling consistency for households and businesses in England. This consultation sought views on increasing consistency in recycling, including on the materials in scope of collection, proposals for commencement dates for regulations, exemptions and statutory guidance. We are aiming to publish our response shortly. Any new financial burdens introduced through new statutory duties on local authorities will be assessed and the reasonable net additional cost covered by the Government. Local authorities are already permitted to charge for business waste collections.

Lakes and Rivers: Sewage

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her has Department made of the impact of sewage pollution in (a) rivers and (b) lakes on biodiversity.

Rebecca Pow: The impact of sewage discharges on ecology varies depending on the pollutants it carries, their concentration, and the nature of the receiving water body. In England, we have now set and committed to four legally binding targets for biodiversity.By 2030 we will halt the decline in species abundance.By 2042 we will reverse species decline, reduce the risk of species extinction and restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitats, including rivers and lakes. Action to restore or create freshwater habitats will support species in our indicator that live in and rely on lakes and rivers such as kingfishers, silver bream, perch, and minnow. Our Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan sets clear and specific targets for water companies, regulators and the Government, to work towards the long-term ambition of eliminating the ecological harm from storm overflows. These targets contribute to the Environment Act targets on biodiversity.

Water: Sewage

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her department is taking to protect future risk to human health from sewage pollution in (a) rivers, (b) lakes and (c) beaches.

Rebecca Pow: In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan.  Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years.In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible. In February 2023 the Secretary of State asked water and sewerage companies to set an action plan on every storm overflow in England, prioritising those that are spilling more than a certain number of times a year, and those spilling into bathing waters and high priority nature sites. Further, in April, we announced a legally binding target to crackdown on sewage spills from storm overflows.

Water Companies

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the transparency of the (a) finances and (b) corporate structures of water companies.

Rebecca Pow: There is a high level of transparency in both areas. All water companies publish their annual reports on their websites. The publicly available reports include financial and governance information. In addition to annual reports, all water companies publish an annual performance report (APR). The APRs are accessible to all stakeholders and set out how companies are delivering for their customers, environment and wider society. Ofwat, the economic regulator, also assesses the financial resilience of water companies and publishes an annual Monitoring Financial Resilience Report, which sets out observations and actions to further improve the financial resilience of the sector. Ofwat’s report can be found here - MFR_2021-22.pdf (ofwat.gov.uk) The water companies provide an essential public service to their communities, and so our Strategic Policy Statement sets out that we expect Ofwat to encourage and incentivise water companies to foster better corporate responsibility. Building on Ofwat’s existing principles for board leadership, transparency and governance, it announced on 20 March 2023 new changes to company licences that will improve the performance and financial health of water companies and provide greater transparency with customers and stakeholders.

Animal Welfare

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the RSPCA on preventing the practice of ear cropping.

Rebecca Pow: Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation (e.g., where it is not carried out for medical purposes) including the cropping of a dog's ears. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has not met with representatives of the RSPCA to discuss the cropping of dogs’ ears

Livestock and Plants: Imports

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answers of 6 and 7 March 2023 to Questions 153671, 153672 and 153673 on Animal Products: Imports, Livestock: Imports and Plants: Imports, whether the prenotification submissions concerned in each answer were made by all countries exporting to the UK or EU and common veterinary area countries exporting to the UK only.

Mark Spencer: The data provided covers imports into the UK from the EU and Common Veterinary Area (Switzerland). It does not include all countries (classed as Rest of World).

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on radio adverts in each of the the last five years broken down by radio station.

Mark Spencer: The Government is strongly supportive of the radio sector and recognises the great value that it offers to communities across the UK. Radio plays an important role in our cross channel strategy, with the merits of its use being assessed in relation to this. Government public information campaigns utilise a wide range of channels to maximise reach and engagement and to ensure our messaging reaches as many people as possible, including radio. The Government runs a number of campaigns across all media channels. The channels selected for government paid marketing campaigns are driven by the target audience. Evaluating the effectiveness of Government communications is paramount to its success. Therefore, no matter the form of communication, we constantly and regularly evaluate our campaigns to ensure effectiveness and value for money. Total spend on radio advertising from the department over the past five years is £284,110.16.

Urban Areas: Environment Protection

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on supporting the regreening of urban areas.

Trudy Harrison: Our Environmental Improvement Plan sets out our commitment for every household to be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water – and this commitment reflects the ongoing work across government to deliver better access to nature across all sections of society. Cabinet colleagues’ departments helped develop the Green Infrastructure Framework, launched by Natural England in 2023. This will help local planning authorities and developers to create or improve green and blue infrastructure in both urban and rural areas. The Government will support local authorities to improve access to green infrastructure.

Land: Conservation

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to protect and preserve landscapes with a distinct literary heritage and value.

Trudy Harrison: Many of our most precious literary landscapes are protected in law as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). In England, there are 10 National Parks and 34 AONBs. Together, they cover nearly 25% of land in England. These places are designated in statute for their natural beauty which provided the inspiration and the settings for some of our greatest works of literature. There are also some good examples of literary considerations in landscape character assessments, including Natural England’s National Character Areas, which reference these associations across England’s landscapes. These designated landscapes are all managed to conserve and enhance their important cultural associations, including relevant literature and the sites which inspired it, as key components of the natural beauty of the area. For instance, the Lake District National Park celebrates its close links to and the inspiration it provided for the great British Romantic Movement, including authors such as Wordsworth and the other Lakes Poets, as well as the much loved children’s authors Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons). Exmoor National Park actively promotes its links with Robert Blackmore’s ‘Lorna Doone’. The Dorset, Blackdown Hills and Cranbourne Chase AONBs all rightly celebrate their associations with Thomas Hardy and help conserve and enhance the settings for his novels. Literary associations are also celebrated and conserved in some of the England’s World Heritage sites. The Lake District World Heritage Site was designated in part due to the fact that it is “A landscape which has inspired artistic and literary movements and generated ideas about landscapes that have had a global influence and left its physical mark” and the Management Plan for this site emphasises the importance of its literary associations. In addition, nearly 400,000 heritage assets – many of them located within the boundaries of National Parks and AONBs – benefit from statutory protection in their own right as Listed Buildings or Scheduled Monuments. Often such assets have strong literary associations – for instance, Stonehenge (protected as a Scheduled Monument) famously provided the setting for the tragic climax of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, while Max Gate (protected as a Listed Building) survives as the house Hardy designed and had built in Dorchester, and in which he wrote this and several of his other classics. These are but two of several such examples.

Fishing Vessels

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that pelagic supertrawlers licensed to fish in UK waters are fulfilling their legal duty to report marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation.

Mark Spencer: The UK introduced new rules in 2021 making it a mandatory requirement under fishing vessel licence conditions for fishers to report any marine mammal bycatch to the MMO. On the introduction of this requirement, communications were sent out by Defra, the Devolved Administrations and the MMO to ensure that industry understood the new obligations. Responsibility for enforcing licence conditions in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for the Devolved Administrations. The Sea Mammal Research Unit have carried out monitoring of pelagic trawlers targeting herring and mackerel for a number of years and reported no bycatch of marine mammals in these fisheries in recent years, whilst other sections of the UK pelagic fleet are working on bycatch mitigation projects to reduce the likelihood of these events occurring more broadly.

Shellfish: North Sea

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps with the (a) Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and (b) Environment Agency to provide an inventory of the remaining samples from the original events that took place in (i) October 2021 and (ii) June 2022 in the North Sea.

Mark Spencer: Crustacean samples from the mortality incident are preserved and securely stored by Cefas. There are eight stored composite samples collected between October 2021 and October 2022, including samples collected early in the investigation by the Environment Agency and those obtained by the Fish Health Inspectorate. These comprise individual and pooled samples derived from more than 80 animals. Samples have been stored according to standard ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory procedures as frozen homogenised tissues, fixed histological preparations, or as partially processed tissues and organs (e.g., extracted DNA or RNA). Cefas is currently arranging for the remaining samples from the original crustacean mortality investigation to be provided to stakeholders in the Northeast in response to their request for any remaining sample material. Provision of these samples will be in line with reporting requirements for disease under Fish Health Inspectorate obligations.

Shellfish: North East

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will establish an ongoing scientific programme to monitor recovery of the area of the North East impacted by the crustacean die-off in October 2021 and June 2022.

Mark Spencer: We are considering carefully if further analysis by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science can ascertain more conclusively the cause of this unusual mortality.

Coffee: Supply Chains

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made on the potential impact of climate change on UK coffee supply chains.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help mitigate the impact of climate change on the UK's coffee supply chains.

Mark Spencer: The Climate Change Committee’s Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk, published in 2021, offers a detailed and up to date insight into the growing risks and opportunities the UK faces from climate change, including risks to food supply chains. This informed our third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3), which was laid in Parliament in January 2022.Defra is working to develop a third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) that addresses all 61 risks and opportunities identified in CCRA3. This is due for publication in the summer of 2023. For the first time, the NAP3 will include dedicated responses to the 10 climate risks and opportunities facing the UK from climate impacts overseas, including risks to UK food availability, safety, and quality from climate change overseas. The risks to food production from climate change are particularly high for crops with few varieties, such as arabica coffee. The UK Government has signed the 2022 International Coffee Agreement which champions the global coffee industry, and the UK will help continue its drive for new standards of sustainability for our coffee. This agreement addresses, where appropriate through research, the challenges facing the global coffee sector, including climate change.

Food: Research

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much (a) staff time and (b) other resource her Department allocated to work to include the development of more sustainable protein sources for human diets as an unquantified proposal or policy in its Carbon Budget delivery plan published in March 2023.

Mark Spencer: We are supporting research and development for climate smart farming through Defra’s £270 million Farming Innovation Programme (FIP), working in partnership with UK Research and Innovation to deliver research to address land use and achieving net zero. This includes £12.5 million R&D investment focused on developing innovative solutions for sustainable farm-based protein production. Innovate UK is currently delivering support to this sector of the industry via the Novel Low Emission Food Production Systems (£16 million) and the Better Food for All (£20 million) calls. We do not keep data on the staff time spent on these activities.

United Utilities

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the transparency of the (a) finances and (b) corporate structures at United Utilities Group.

Rebecca Pow: All water companies publish their annual reports on their websites. The publicly available reports include financial and governance information. United Utilities’ most recent annual report can be found here - United Utilities Group PLC - Year in Review 2022 (annualreport2022.com). In addition to annual reports, all water companies publish an annual performance report (APR). The APRs are accessible to all stakeholders and set out how companies are delivering for their customers, environment and wider society. Ofwat, the economic regulator, also assesses the financial resilience of water companies and publishes an annual Monitoring Financial Resilience Report, which sets out observations and actions to further improve the financial resilience of the sector. Ofwat’s report can be found here - MFR_2021-22.pdf (ofwat.gov.uk). The water companies provide an essential public service to their communities, and so our Strategic Policy Statement sets out that we expect Ofwat to encourage and incentivise water companies to foster better corporate responsibility. Building on their existing principles for board leadership, transparency and governance, Ofwat announced on 20 March 2023 new changes to company licences that will improve the performance and financial health of water companies and provide greater transparency with customers and stakeholders.

Agriculture Act 2020

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including public access to the countryside in the definition public good in the Agriculture Act 2020.

Mark Spencer: The public goods supported by the Agriculture Act 2020 are listed under Section 1 of the Act. Section 1 allows financial assistance to be given for or in connection with any one or more of a range of purposes, including supporting public access to and enjoyment of the countryside, farmland or woodland and better understanding of the environment. We have confirmed in a recent publication that we will continue to pay for access to the countryside.

Environment Protection: Business and Consumers

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support (a) businesses and (b) consumers who support environmental-based initiatives.

Trudy Harrison: Five years ago, the 25 Year Environment Plan set out our vision for a quarter-of-a-century of action as part of the commitment to leaving the environment in a better state than we found it.  Now, we are building on that plan. In January, the Government published the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (EIP23), detailing a delivery plan for each of our goals, matched with stretching interim targets to measure progress. This Plan sets out clear delivery plans for working across government, and with business, local government sectors and the public to achieve our commitments, including long term targets, for environmental improvement. Our plan will support green jobs and green growth across the country. We can drive UK inward and outward investment, create new jobs, generate export opportunities in fast growing global markets and place UK scientific and technology expertise, green finance opportunities and businesses at the forefront of a global sustainability transition. The Government also provides extensive support to all types of businesses, including those with activities focused on environmental-based initiatives. Support is available through the free Business Support Helpline, 38 Growth Hubs across England and newly launched Help to Grow website. The Government’s goal is to create a society that is greener by design, enabling green action at all levels. We will make green choices easier and more affordable, so that they become the default option. We will do this in a way that maintains choice and supports fairness, including by ensuring businesses and consumers are supported to take green action. We will empower people and businesses to make informed choices, by providing clear information about the environmental impact of different products, services, and actions. We must all take action - central Government, local authorities, businesses, communities, families and individual citizens. Businesses of all sizes can also access Government-backed finance from the British Business Bank, such as via the Start Up Loans programme and Recovery Loan Scheme.

Ofwat: Standards

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Ofwat.

Rebecca Pow: The Government has established a robust system of independent economic regulation for the purpose of ensuring the public receive excellent service and value for money from their water companies. Ofwat, as the independent economic regulator, protects the interests of consumers by making sure water companies carry out their statutory functions and are financially resilient, as well as holding them to account on performance and the delivery of essential services for customers. Where companies fail to meet their obligations, regulators have not hesitated to act. Ofwat’s annual performance assessment process, and the automatic penalties that apply to companies who underperform, represents an excellent example of strong economic and environmental regulation. In November 2022, Ofwat announced financial penalties of £132 million applying to 11 water companies, in response to underperformance in areas such as water supply interruptions, pollution incidents and internal sewer flooding. Money from Ofwat’s penalties will rightly be returned to customers through water bills in 2023-24. Regulators are going further to improve water company performance. The Government supports Ofwat’s recent decision in December 2022 to strengthen its powers on executive pay awards by setting out that shareholders, and not customers, will fund pay awards where companies do not demonstrate their decisions on pay awards reflects overall performance. Ofwat also recently strengthened the existing dividend licence condition so that it can take enforcement action against water companies that do not make an explicit link between dividend payments and their performance for customers and the environment. This measure on dividends was made possible by new licence modification powers that this Government gave to Ofwat via the Environment Act 2021. The Government will continue to work with water sector regulators to hold water companies to account on poor performance and drive improvements which benefit customers and the environment.

Rural Areas: Business

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help improve the productivity of rural businesses.

Trudy Harrison: The Government is committed to helping rural businesses prosper. Among other measures, Defra has launched the £110 million Rural England Prosperity Fund to help new and existing rural businesses to develop new products and facilities that will be of wider benefit to the local economy as well supporting new and improved community infrastructure. The fund is being delivered by local authorities in eligible areas and we confirmed their allocations in April 2023 so that they can begin implementation. We also believe there is a huge opportunity for the agriculture and horticulture sectors to improve their competitiveness – developing the next generation of food and farming technology, adopting the latest techniques and investing in skills and equipment. In November 2021 we opened the Farming Investment Fund which is providing grants to farmers, foresters and growers (including contractors to these sectors) so that they can invest in the equipment, technology and infrastructure that will help their businesses to prosper, while improving their productivity and enhancing the environment. Following Round 1 of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund we have already provided funding of more than £33 million to 3,200 farmers. The Farming Innovation Programme is helping to drive innovations by providing £270 million of funding to support farmers, growers, foresters, and other businesses in England to develop innovative ways to increase productivity and environmental sustainability, as well as helping them to decarbonise by researching and developing new technologies, processes and practices. Through the Resilience Fund farmers and land managers in England can access free business support and advice. To date over 13,000 farmers have accessed this service. More widely the Government is taking steps to improve digital connectivity, a vital step to boost rural productivity. The Government is investing £5 billion through the Project Gigabit programme to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to hard-to-reach premises, in line with our commitment to reach 85% of UK premises with gigabit connectivity no later than the end of 2025 and as close as possible to 100% as soon as possible after that. The £1 billion Shared Rural Network programme is on track to deliver its target to reach 95% of UK landmass by the end of 2025, and further coverage improvements in the more hard-to-reach areas will continue to be delivered until the start of 2027.

Sewage: Waste Disposal

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2023 to Question 182819, whether her Department plans to require water companies to publish the volume of sewage discharges in addition to frequency and duration of discharge events.

Rebecca Pow: The Environment Agency has instructed water companies to install flow monitors at 2,000 wastewater treatment works. These provide important data on the volume of treated final effluent discharges to the environment. We have no plans to require water companies to install volume monitors on sewage overflows as they are highly challenging to adapt to use in the field. We have increased the number of storm overflows monitored across the network from 7% in 2010 to 91% now monitored, and we will reach 100% cover by end of this year. In April, we launched our consultation on Continuous Water Quality Monitoring and Event Duration Monitoring. This outlines the government’s proposals to enhance the monitoring of storm overflow and final effluent discharges and to report on this in near-real time. This consultation closes on 23 May.

Water Companies: Standards

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2023 to Question 167213 on Water Companies: Standards, whether her Department makes a distinction between internal and external dividends when formulating policies on enforcement action against water companies that do not link dividend payments to performance.

Rebecca Pow: Government has been clear that companies must be transparent about aligning dividend payments to delivery of services for customers and performance, including environmental performance. We support Ofwat’s new measures to increase financial resilience in the sector that improves transparency and customer protection. When analysing dividends paid out by water companies, Ofwat looks at all dividend payments both internally within the company corporate structure as well those paid to external shareholders. Further information on Ofwat’s new measures can be found here Decision_document_financial_resilience_proposals.pdf (ofwat.gov.uk)

Agriculture: Migrant Workers

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers.

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions her Department has held with agricultural producers on the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers who live on-site.

Mark Spencer: The Home Office sponsor licence regime places a broad range of responsibilities on the operators of the Seasonal Workers visa route to safeguard migrant workers under the scheme, including protecting their rights and ensuring effective enforcement of UK employment laws. The Government keeps these protections under close and ongoing review. A new team within the Home Office compliance network focuses on ensuring sponsors are abiding by workers’ rights by improving training and processes for compliance inspectors and creating clear policies and guidance for robust action for scheme operators where workers are at risk of exploitation. Should any of the selected operators fall short in these duties action will be taken, up to and including the revocation of their sponsor licence.The Home Office and Defra maintain regular contact with scheme operators to ensure that they adhere to the stringent requirements set for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the seasonal workers. All Seasonal Worker visa route operators are also required to hold a Gangmasters Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) licence, as a condition of maintaining their role as a scheme operator. The responsibilities and remit of the GLAA are set out on their website.Defra continues to speak regularly with the agricultural sector including on matters relating to the welfare of seasonal workers. Defra also conducts an annual survey of workers, providing them with a route to provide direct feedback to us on their experience while working here including their living and working conditions. In addition, Defra officials engage with the industry and non-profit organisation led Seasonal Worker Taskforce, which focuses on practical actions to improve the responsible recruitment and employment of migrant workers into UK farms.

Sewage: Pollution

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of sewage pollution on the contraction of (a) Hepatitis A an (b) E.coli.

Rebecca Pow: In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan. Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible. In the Plan, we state that water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging into and near designated bathing waters, by either: applying disinfection; or reducing the frequency of discharges to meet Environment Agency spill standards by 2035. E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.

Water: Sewage

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the risk to human health from sewage pollution in (a) rivers, (b) lakes and (c) beaches.

Rebecca Pow: In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history – Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan. Our strict targets will see the toughest ever crackdown on sewage spills and will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history - £56 billion capital investment over 25 years. In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible. In the Plan, we state that water companies must significantly reduce harmful pathogens from storm overflows discharging into and near designated bathing waters, by either: applying disinfection; or reducing the frequency of discharges to meet Environment Agency spill standards by 2035.

Water: Sewage

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential risks of contracting (a) Hepatitis A and (b) E.coli as a result of sewage pollution into rivers and water courses.

Rebecca Pow: The Secretary of State has many meetings with Cabinet Ministers and discussions between departments continue. In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible. E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.

Water: Sewage

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with the Chief Medical Officer on the impact of sewage pollution on levels of contraction of (a) Hepatitis A and (b) E.coli as a result of sewage pollution.

Rebecca Pow: The Secretary of State has many meetings with senior members of government and officials, and discussions between departments continue. In August 2022 the Government launched the most ambitious plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows in water company history - Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. In the Plan, we have prioritised protecting public health at bathing waters. Overflows that are causing the most harm to public health, or the environment, will be addressed first to make the biggest difference as quickly as possible. E. coli is one of the standard faecal indicator organisms prevalent in sewage discharges but can also be found in agricultural runoff and road drainage. Bathing waters at beaches, lakes and rivers are designated under the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 to protect bathers’ health against faecal pollution. E. coli is one of the standards bathing waters are monitored for.

Department for Business and Trade

Internet: Fraud

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Government is taking to help tackle fake online reviews.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government introduced the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill on 25 April. The DMCC Bill includes a delegated power to amend the list of automatically unfair practices in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.The Government will consult on the use of this power during bill passage with a view to adding practices related to fake and misleading reviews to the list of automatically unfair practices. This will give greater clarity to business on their responsibilities in relation to consumer reviews and allow enforcers to take effective action quickly.

Microsoft: Foreign Investment in UK

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Competition and Markets Authority's decision to prevent Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision on levels of international investment into the UK.

Kevin Hollinrake: The CMA is the UK’s independent competition regulator and has published the rationale for its decision. It would not be appropriate for me to comment on the details of this case.

Overseas Trade: India

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183602 on Overseas Trade: India, if he will make an estimate of the number of jobs that have been created in Greater Manchester as a result of the UK-India investment relationship.

Nigel Huddleston: The Official Statistics on inward investment at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/department-for-international-trade-inward-investment-results-2021-to-2022 contain details on the number of jobs created from Foreign Direct Investment from India in to the UK, and jobs created from all FDI in to Greater Manchester. However it is not possible to publish figures at a more granular detail due to the risk of disclosing company level details. More information is available in the technical annex.

Department for Business and Trade: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department has spent on radio adverts in the last five years broken down by radio station.

Nigel Huddleston: The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) was created following the Machinery of Government change announced on 7 February 2023. Previous to the Machinery of Government change, the Department for International Trade spent £2,056,432 in the last 5 years. Since the change, the Department for Business and Trade has spent £214,654. The Government is strongly supportive of the radio sector and recognises the great value that it offers to communities across the UK. Radio plays an important role in our cross-channel strategy, with the merits of its use being assessed in relation to this. Evaluating the effectiveness of Government communications is paramount to its success. Therefore, no matter the form of communication, we constantly and regularly evaluate our campaigns to ensure effectiveness and value for money.

Working Hours: Health

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the recommendations on addressing health challenges for night shift workers made by the former Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee in its report entitled Post-pandemic economic growth: UK labour markets, HC 306, published on 21 April 2023.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government welcomes the research undertaken by the former Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee in their recent report on the UK labour market.The Government response to the report’s recommendations will follow in the usual manner in due course.

Unfair Practices: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether her Department plans to (a) retain (b) replace or (c) revoke the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Department intends to repeal these regulations and restate them in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill with some amendments, chiefly to enable the Government to strengthen rules against fake reviews. The Government is committed to a consumer rights framework that protects consumers and drives consumer confidence, while minimising unnecessary costs to business.

Working Hours: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether her Department plans to (a) retain, (b) replace or (c) revoke the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Kevin Hollinrake: We are consulting on proposals to improve how the Working Time Regulations 1998 operate without impacting the rights that really matter to workers. This Government has no intention of abandoning our strong record on workers’ rights, having raised domestic standards over recent years to make them some of the highest in the world. We will be consulting on proposals to remove retained EU case law that imposes time-consuming and disproportionate requirements on business for working hour records to be kept for almost all members of the workforce, which could save employers around £1bn a year. The consultation also proposes to merge the two separate annual leave entitlements into one pot of statutory annual leave, while maintaining the same amount of statutory annual leave entitlement overall, and to introduce rolled-up holiday pay, so that workers can receive their holiday pay with each payslip. The consultation can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/retained-eu-employment-law-reforms

Economic Growth

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to ensure long-term industrial growth.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Chancellor has identified five key growth sectors for the UK: Digital Technology, Green Industries, Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing and Creative Industries. The government announced £500 million per year package of support for 20,000 research and development (R&D) intensive businesses through changes to R&D tax credits, 12 new investment zones, and £20 billion of support for the early development of Carbon Capture Usage and Storage. DBT announced regulatory measures that will reduce burdensome red tape and tailor rules to suit the UK economy, potentially saving employers around £1 billion yearly. These innovative policies will help DBT drive long-term industrial growth for the UK.

Parental Leave: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether her Department plans to (a) retain, (b) replace or (c) revoke the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999.

Kevin Hollinrake: Our high standards in maternity rights are not dependent on us mirroring the same rules as the EU. The UK has gone further and moved faster than the EU in the past. For instance, we provide a year of maternity leave with the option to convert to shared parental leave to enable parents to share care, whilst the EU minimum maternity leave is just 14 weeks.The Government will not make any changes to the system of maternity or parental leave through the REUL Bill. Regulations related to these entitlements will be preserved.

Business Premises: Guide Dogs

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to ensure that guide dog owners are not refused access to businesses and services.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Equality Act 2010 places a general duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act. In 2017 it published two pieces of guidance - ‘a guide to help businesses understand what they can do to meet their legal duties to assistance dog owners’, and ‘a guide to help tourism businesses welcome people with access requirements’.Duties and protections under the Equality Act are ultimately enforceable through the courts, and anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to seek to resolve the issue. The EHRC will support people who have experienced discrimination through that process.

Trade Promotion: Technology

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Government is taking to promote the UK tech sector to American investors.

Nigel Huddleston: The Department for Business and Trade promotes UK tech to American investors via dedicated officials resource in country, cultivating relationships with U.S. investors, such as, Google, In-Q-Tel and IBM, to promote UK tech start-ups, and facilitate introductions between UK founders and American VCs. We collaborated with the British Venture Capital Association, taking UK VCs across the U.S. to promote UK tech sectors and secure additional U.S. investment. We have established working groups to encourage U.S. investor entry into UK tech markets, stimulating collaboration, and the migration of skills and talent across several tech disciplines to the UK.

UK Trade with EU

John McNally: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has made a recent estimate of the potential impact of the ending of freedom of movement with the EU on business costs; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of negotiating with the EU to allow frontier worker permits to be applied to more than one EU country at a time.

Nigel Huddleston: The Department for Business and Trade does not hold this data. In December 2020, the UK and the EU agreed a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which allows short-term business visitors to travel to the EU. This department is not responsible for frontiers workers permits.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether his Department plans to (a) revoke, (b) retain or (c) replace the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001.

Dehenna Davison: Further to the Elections Act 2022, which amended the franchise for elections reserved to the UK Government to reflect changes to EU citizen's voting and candidacy rights as a result of our new relationship with the EU, the Government has no plans to extend voting rights in General Elections to those with settled or pre-settled status.The Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 will be retained.

Department for Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.

Dehenna Davison: The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities responded to the ruling of the Employment Appeal Tribunal on the Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors case in 2017 by implementing a holiday pay scheme in July 2019. The Tribunal ruled that if you regularly receive overtime, on-call allowances/standby rates or shift working payments, you will annually receive holiday pay where eligible. On implementation of the scheme in 2019 we backdated payments for holiday pay to 31 July 2017, the date of the ruling, for all those who regularly receive overtime, on-call allowances or shift working payments. The scheme is run annually in September of each year, with payments made for the previous year.

Social Rented Housing: Air Conditioning

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 22 September 2022 to Question 46163 on Social Rented Housing: Air Conditioning, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that social housing built before June 2022 is retrofitted to enable passive cooling.

Dehenna Davison: The Government has committed to consider overheating and indoor air quality risks when developing policies to future-proof buildings and continues to undertake relevant research.Work carried out under current Government retrofit schemes, including the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF), must be carried out by a certified installer in accordance with PAS 2035 to ensure that risks, including overheating and ventilation risks, are considered.The Decent Homes Standard (DHS) already contains certain protections against overheating. The government has committed to review the DHS to ensure that it meets present minimum standards on safety and decency for the social and private rented sectors.

Islamophobia

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has held discussions with relevant stakeholders on tackling Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred in the last 12 months.

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle Islamophobia.

Dehenna Davison: Further to the answer given to 182937 on 9 May 2023, details of ministerial and senior official meetings are published on gov.uk.

Building Safety Fund

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the Building Safety Fund for remedial works to medium rise blocks will begin.

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of not allowing owners of three or more properties to receive funding for fire safety works on the progress of remediating buildings with fire safety issues.

Lee Rowley: As with all policies, the Government continues to monitor this situation and the progress of remediation of buildings. The Government is committed to introducing a new scheme to provide funding for the remediation or mitigation of the fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects on medium-rise buildings (11-18m) where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced, or held responsible. An initial pilot of the scheme opened in November 2022, targeting a small number of buildings that have interim measures or simultaneous evacuation measures in place. Further details will be set out in due course.The availability of funding for fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects from the Building Safety Fund, and in due course the Cladding Safety Scheme, takes no account of the number of properties owned by leaseholders. Residential properties are bought both as personal residences and commercial investments and Parliament determined that it was appropriate to draw that distinction at the ownership of three properties, when considering this matter in relation to protecting leaseholders, during the passage of the Building Safety Act 2022.

Community Relations: Leicester

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has taken steps to support inter-faith community cohesion in Leicester in the period since September 2022.

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the impact of the Inter Faith Network on community cohesion in the UK.

Dehenna Davison: The department continues to take steps to support inter-faith community cohesion. For example, this government is supporting Dame Sara Khan's independent review of Social Cohesion and Resilience which is due to report in the Autumn, and I am considering additional options to take forward.   I refer the Hon Member to my answer to Question UIN 182308 on 27 April 2023.

Social Rented Housing: Mould

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of implementing Awaab’s Law.

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) local authorities on local authority funding for implementing Awaab’s Law.

Dehenna Davison: In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed. Officials meet regularly with counterparts in local government to discuss a range of issues.Social landlords already have a responsibility to meet the Decent Homes Standard (which specifies homes must be free of the most dangerous 'category 1' hazards) and to remedy disrepair. Awaab's law will establish the timeframes within which landlords have to fulfil those responsibilities.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much his Department has spent on radio adverts in each of the the last five years broken down by radio station.

Dehenna Davison: Details of departmental spending are published on gov.uk and government contracts on Contracts Finder. Spend cannot be broken down by individual radio stations in the time provided.

Regeneration: Finance

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when his Department plans to provide a memorandum of understanding to local authorities that will receive funding for English city region capital regeneration projects.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when his Department plans to provide a Memorandum of Understanding to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council for the English city region capital regeneration project in Dinnington, Rother Valley.

Dehenna Davison: 16 Communities across England will benefit from up to £211 million awarded to 16 Capital Regeneration Projects.As set out in the published accounting officer assessment, these awards are subject to further subsidy control checks and my department is working with local authorities on this. Template Memorandums of Understanding have been shared and will be signed once the checks for each project are completed.

Leasehold

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the costs incurred to leaseholders who must now seek legal advice and include the protections afforded Building Safety Act 2022 into contractual agreements for those wishing to extent or vary their lease.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he will take legislative steps to reapply the statutory leaseholder protections in the Building Safety Act 2022 to leaseholders wishing to extend or vary their lease.

Lee Rowley: We are aware of the issue concerning leaseholder protections where leases are extended or varied, and are looking to legislate to resolve this issue as soon as Parliamentary time allows. In the meantime, before pursuing a new lease to extend or vary an existing lease, leaseholders should seek legal advice and to come to an agreement with their landlord to apply the same protections as their existing contractual terms.The department does not hold information on the costs likely to be incurred by leaseholders who must now seek legal advice, although many lease extensions will, in any event, involve leaseholders seeking such advice. We do expect landlords to make sure that lease extensions, and variations, reflect a qualifying leaseholder's current protections; where landlords are avoiding applying the protections as contractual terms, we are encouraging leaseholders to write to us so that we can follow this up.

Planning Permission: St Albans

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183562 on Housing: Construction, what assessment he has made of whether planning appeals (a) 5/21/3194, Land North of Chiswell Green Lane: APP/B1930/W/22/3312277 and (b) 5/22/0927, Land South of Chiswell Green Lane: APP/B1930/W/22/3313110 meet the threshold for recovery as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 30 June 2008, column 44WS, in the context of proposals for significant development in the green belt.

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183562 on Housing: Construction, what assessment he has made of whether planning appeals (a) 5/21/3194, Land North of Chiswell Green Lane: APP/B1930/W/22/3312277 and (b) 5/22/0927, Land South of Chiswell Green Lane: APP/B1930/W/22/3313110 meet the threshold for recovery as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 30 June 2008, column 44WS, in the context of (a) proposals which raise important or novel issues of development control, and/or legal difficulties and (b) his oral contribution of 8 December 2022, Official Report, column 546, on forthcoming changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to defend the green belt.

Rachel Maclean: In line with the practice of successive administrations, it would not be appropriate to comment on specific planning applications.

Renewable Energy: Planning Permission

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April to Question 182684 on Renewable Energy: Planning Permission, how many inspector's reports issued to local planning authorities in the last six months on plans submitted for examination in accordance with section 20 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 considered the application of his policy set out in the Written Ministerial Statement on Plan Making of 25 March 2015; how many of these reports commented that the policy had been overtaken by events including by existing and proposed changes to the Building Regulations; and if he will make a statement.

Rachel Maclean: The information requested is held by the local authorities concerned.

Asylum: Housing

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether houses of multiple occupation that are housing asylum seekers will be exempt from local authority selective and additional licensing schemes following the approval of The Houses in Multiple Occupation (Asylum-Seeker Accommodation) (England) Regulations 2023.

Rachel Maclean: Details of the proposed legislation are available here.

A34: Oxfordshire

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had recent discussions with Homes England on releasing funding from the brownfield, infrastructure and land fund for use by the Lodge Hill Junction scheme.

Rachel Maclean: In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.

Leasehold

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number of leases that have been (a) varied and (b) extended since 14 February 2022.

Rachel Maclean: The information requested is not held by DLUHC.

First Time Buyers

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps the Government has taken to help first-time buyers purchase a home.

Rachel Maclean: This Government is committed to helping to make the dream of homeownership a reality, and operates a range of relevant schemes which aim to make home ownership more affordable. Since spring 2010, over 829,000 households have been helped to purchase a home through Government-backed schemes including Help to Buy and Right to Buy. Current government schemes include First Homes, Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, Shared Ownership and Lifetime ISA. We have also expanded First-Time Buyers Relief on stamp duty, raising the threshold at which it becomes payable from £300,000 to £425,000 - this will apply until 31 March 2025.

Property Management Companies: Regulation

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the Final Report of the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group, published in July 2019; and whether he plans to introduce legislation to create an independent body to regulate managing agents.

Rachel Maclean: The Government is considering the recommendations in the final report on the regulation of property agents from Lord Best's working group. We will continue to work with industry on improving best practice. Announcements will be set out in the usual way.

Allotments

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what statutory duty local authorities have to provide additional allotments.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has published recent guidance to local authorities on the provision of a sufficient number of allotments within local plans.

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has provided recent guidance to local authorities on (a) their responsibilities for and (b) best practice in assessing demand for allotments.

Rachel Maclean: The Government recognises through our National Planning Policy Framework the important role that allotments can provide in enabling and supporting healthy lifestyles within our communities. The Framework is clear that local planning policies should be based on robust and up-to-date assessments of the need for open space and opportunities for new provision, which can include allotments, and their plans should then seek to accommodate this.Our National Model Design Code states that as part of open space design for large developments there should be the consideration of allotments and community growing projects for food production, learning and community engagement.I refer the Hon Member to published guidance on the statutory and policy criteria councils must meet in order to obtain the Secretary of State's consent to dispose of allotment land.Section 23 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 places a duty on district and parish councils to provide allotments where they perceive there is a demand for them.

Service Charges

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) capping service charge rises at the rate of CPI inflation, (b) requiring housing association landlords to publish an annual independent audit of service charges, (c) implementing a requirement for housing associations to fully itemise bills and accompany them with validated receipts and (d) requiring the boards of housing associations to improve monitoring of (i) service charges and (ii) complaints systems.

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps the Government has taken to improve the transparency of service charges.

Rachel Maclean: Variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard.We believe that charges to leaseholders and social housing tenants should be transparent and communicated effectively, and there should be a clear route to challenge them if things go wrong.With regard specifically to social housing tenants I refer the Hon. Member to the oral answers given on 27 March 2023 (Official Report, HC, Volume 730, Column 644) and to the answers given to Question UIN 114788 on 13 January 2023 and Question UIN 86547 on 23 November 2022.

Right to Buy Scheme: Housing Associations

Duncan Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when the extension of the right to buy for housing association tenants will be brought into effect.

Rachel Maclean: The Government remains committed to the Right to Buy, which since 1980 has enabled over two million social housing tenants to become homeowners.Any future announcements will be set out in the usual way.

British National (Overseas): Hong Kong

Samantha Dixon: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of refusals by the Hong Kong Police Force to provide criminals records of British National (overseas) Visa holders on the ability of those people to gain employment in the UK.

Felicity Buchan: In April 2021, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched a new UK-wide Welcome Programme to support BN(O) status holders. In November 2022, DLUHC published a letter to BN(O)s and prospective employers on Certificates of No Criminal Conviction (CNCC) from the Hong Kong Police. The letter outlines a revised guidance on how to obtain a CNCC. Where a CNCC cannot be obtained, sectoral examples on alternative methods are provided. The letter is available in English and Cantonese and is available on the GOV.UK landing page. We are working closely with FCDO officials to keep the guidance under review and monitor the impact to help BN(O)s overcome the barriers they face when seeking employment.

Homelessness: Young People

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to prevent homelessness among young people aged 16-24.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the findings in Centrepoint's factsheet entitled The youth homelessness databank.

Felicity Buchan: We have committed over £650 million to councils in England through the Homelessness Prevention Grant to help them prevent homelessness, including youth homelessness.Since 2018/19 the Department for Education has provided funding to local authorities with the highest number of care leavers at risk of homelessness or rough sleeping. This funding continues to provide targeted support to young people leaving care most at risk of homelessness.The Government will also continue investment into the 'Staying Put' programme which requires local authorities to support young people to remain with their former foster care to age 21 if the carer and young person want the fostering arrangement to continue, and scale up the number of local areas offering the 'Staying Close' programme, which enable young people leaving care to stay with, or in touch with, former foster families and children's homes for longer - building their resilience as they transition to independent living.

Temporary Accommodation

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many households were placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local borough in (a) 2022, (b) 2020, and (c) 2018.

Felicity Buchan: The statutory homelessness live tables for England are available here. This includes quarterly snapshot data on those who were placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local authority.

Local Government Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of local government funding.

Lee Rowley: The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23.

Public Lavatories: Men

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to amend (a) building regulations and (b) his Department's guidance to require the provision of sanitary bins in men's public toilets.

Lee Rowley: Improving the accessibility and use of buildings is already a part of the Government’s agenda on the built environment. A process has been underway since 2020 to update the building regulations and associated guidance contained in Approved Document M. Simultaneously, a call for evidence on toilet provision was undertaken earlier this year and Written Ministerial Statement HCWS172 followed from it.The Government is committed to undertaking further technical consultations on both of these workstreams in due course. Upon conclusion of those consultations, responses will be considered, and policy announcements will then be made in the appropriate way.

Energy Performance Certificates

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of homes in England had an Energy Performance Certificate of level C in each year since 2010.

Lee Rowley: This information is publicly available at the following link - Energy Performance of Buildings Registers and energy efficiency ratings.

Department of Health and Social Care

General Practitioners

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's primary care plan in reducing pressure on GP surgeries.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Community Diagnostic Centres: Heart Diseases

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of community diagnostic centres offer echocardiogram tests.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Protective Clothing: Contracts

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many due diligence checks on companies not were completed before contracts were awarded for personal protective equipment procurement.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the potential adverse effects are of the spike proteins produced by mRNA covid-19vaccinations.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Autism and Learning Disability: Integrated Care Boards

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Integrated Care Boards have an operational keyworker service for children with learning disabilities and autistic children.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of repeated Covid-19 vaccine boosters on natural immunity for patients aged (a) over and (b) under 30.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Electronic Cigarettes

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to discourage underage vaping.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Organs: Crime

Ms Marie Rimmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many offences under section 170 of the Health and Care Act 2022 have been recorded.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services: Older People

Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the average cost to the public purse of the provision of health and social care for people aged (a) 65 to 79 and (b) 80 and above in the latest period for which data was available.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what provision he will make for patients to be able to opt out of having their information stored on the Federated Data Platform.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Federated Data Platform will ensure that all patient data is (a) held within the UK and (b) is subject to UK data protection law including the General Data Protection Regulation.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Federated Data Platform, whether (a) people or (b) organisations with access to the platform to access information that could identify patients.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether private companies in the (a) health and (b) care sector will be able to access data that could identify patients via the Federated Data Platform.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether non-NHS providers will be given access to data that could identify patients via the Federated Data Platform.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Diabetes: North West

Sir Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with (a) the Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership, (b) Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System and (c) Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership on plans to collaboratively support people with type one diabetes to access timely and localised care.

Helen Whately: The Department has held no discussions with the Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership, Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System or Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership on plans to collaboratively support people with type one diabetes to access timely and localised care The NHS Long Term plan sets out how NHS will enhance its support offer for those people living with type one diabetes, including further expanding the provision of structured education and digital self-management support tools. The Major Conditions Strategy will set out how we intend to tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England which includes diabetes.

Rare Diseases

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the development of medical alert cards for people with rare and genetic conditions following the commitment made in the Implementation Plan for the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases.

Helen Whately: In the Second Progress Report from the Rare Disease Policy Board (2018), NHS England proposed to give every patient with a rare disease an ‘alert card’, which would include information about the patient’s rare disease.This proposal to develop ‘alert cards’ was not progressed at the time due to capacity constraints. This proposal has not featured in the subsequent England Rare Diseases Action Plans (2022 and 2023), and NHS England is now focussing on delivering against the actions identified in these new plans. Under the coordination of care priority this has included developing a toolkit for virtual consultations to help people with complex, multi-system rare diseases access multiple specialists without needing to travel. The England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan includes actions to provide the evidence needed to operationalise better coordination of care in the National Health Service and to include the definition of coordination of care in service specifications for patients with rare diseases.

Maternity Services: Medical Equipment

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of (a) thermometers, (b) blood pressure monitors and (c) other routinely used and inexpensive medical devices in maternity wards.

Will Quince: The Department proactively monitors supply conditions and engages extensively with industry to identify threats to the supply of medical equipment. It also has established procedures to deal with medical device shortages, working closely with NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and others to prevent shortages and minimise the impact on patents when they do arise. The Department is not aware of any current supply constraints in relation to thermometers, blood pressure monitors and other routinely used and inexpensive medical devices in maternity wards.

Social Services: Vetting

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to establish a safeguarding register for all staff employed to work with or care for vulnerable people in care settings which prevents the transfer of staff from one setting to another when safeguarding concerns have been raised.

Helen Whately: Regulated providers of care have a key role in safeguarding. To prevent the transfer of staff between settings where safeguarding concerns have been raised, providers have a legal duty to make a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). If someone is being considered by the DBS, it is because they have committed a relevant offence, or because an employer has concerns that an individual may have harmed a child or vulnerable adult or put a child or vulnerable adult at risk of harm.

Diabetes: Greater Manchester

Sir Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve access to technology to treat type 1 diabetes for local diabetes services in Greater Manchester.

Sir Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership on the release of the NICE technology appraisal on Hybrid closed loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes; and if he will make a statement.

Helen Whately: NHS Greater Manchester is currently considering the adoption of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance in relation to access to glucose monitoring technology. Working with the Greater Manchester Medicines Management Group and provider trusts, NHS Greater Manchester is seeking to review commissioning procedures and bring forward plans for adoption of NICE guidance NHS Greater Manchester is currently reviewing NICE guidance on making available Technology Appraisals on Hybrid closed loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes available.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to require all hospitals that provide paediatric services to have paediatric interventional radiology service policies in place.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to facilitate equal access to paediatric interventional radiology services.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring all hospitals that provide paediatric services to have paediatric interventional radiology service policies in place.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to require all hospitals that provide paediatric services to have paediatric interventional radiology service policies in place.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) paediatric interventional radiology (PIR) inclusion in all relevant NHS service specifications and (b) PIR policies in all hospitals that treat children.

Helen Whately: The Department will discuss these issues with NHS England. National Health Service trusts are expected to have the relevant policies in place, in line with service specification and commissioning guidance produced by NHS England.

Hereditary Diseases

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support people with undiagnosed genetic conditions.

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to consult with (a) patients and (b) the public on the (i) development and (ii) delivery of the SWAN Pilot Programme under the England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan.

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the delivery of the SWAN Pilot Programme as part of the England 2023 Rare Diseases Action Plan.

Helen Whately: Several of the actions in the 2022 and 2023 England Rare Diseases Action Plans focus on genomic approaches to provide faster diagnosis for people with undiagnosed rare conditions, including genetic conditions. However, for some people living with extremely rare diseases, the complex and rare nature of their conditions may mean that they never receive a diagnosis. We are committed to ensuring that these people and their families also receive the support and care they need.In the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2022 NHS England committed to ‘pilot new approaches for patients with undiagnosed conditions’ (action 5). To address this commitment, during 2022, NHS England developed a proposal for a syndrome without a name (SWAN) Pilot Programme for people whose conditions remain undiagnosed. It will progress through the NHS England finance and governance processes and there will be a clearer plan for delivery in the next few months. If the SWAN Pilot Programme expands such that there is a need for a service specification, the normal processes would be followed in terms of engaging with stakeholders, including consulting with patients and the public on the delivery of the Programme.

Autism and Learning Disability: Community Care

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to move people with learning disabilities and autism out of long-stay inpatient units and into community care settings.

Maria Caulfield: In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for Children and Young People’s keyworkers.On 14 July 2022 we published the Building the Right Support (BtRS) Action Plan which brings together actions across government and public services to strengthen community support and reduce overall reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.The BtRS Delivery Board is responsible for overseeing implementation of the BtRS Action Plan.

Care Homes: Ownership

Taiwo Owatemi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to prevent the Care Quality Commission Notices of Decision from lapsing upon a care home's change of ownership.

Maria Caulfield: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. As such it makes independent decisions about any enforcement action it takes against a provider.A Notice of Decision is served and takes effect against a provider’s registration, for example, a care home. When a care home is taken over by a new provider any previous Notice of Decision would not pass to the new provider’s registration. However, when a new provider applies to register with the CQC, their application would be subject to a full assessment by the CQC. Not meeting the CQC’s fundamental standards could result in a new provider being issued with a Notice of Proposal seeking to refuse the application.Where a provider is subject to ongoing enforcement action by CQC to cancel their registration, for example, a Notice of Proposal or Notice of Decision has been served but not yet taken effect, the provider is restricted from applying to cancel their own registration.

Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Mental Health Act to ensure that a patient cannot be assessed for detention by a doctor who has an outstanding complaint against them in relation to their care of that patient.

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will amend the Mental Health Act to ensure a patient cannot be assessed for detention under the Mental Health Act by a doctor with an outstanding complaint against them in relation to their care of that patient.

Maria Caulfield: There are currently no plans to include this provision in the Mental Health Act. The Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Committee has reported on the Draft Mental Health Bill and Government is considering their recommendations and will publish a response in due course. The Government will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows.

Social Services: Recruitment

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the number of new care workers expected to be recruited due to the Made to Care recruitment campaign this year.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to increase the tariffs applied to paediatric interventional radiology procedures.

Helen Whately: This will be subject to discussions with NHS England as tariffs are set by NHS England.

Immunosuppression: Protective Clothing

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential risks of withdrawing (a) masks and (b) other protective measures in medical settings for immunosuppressed people.

Maria Caulfield: In April 2022, NHS England published the National infection prevention and control manual (NIPCM), which ensures a consistent approach to infection prevention and control guidance across the National Health Service. The NIPCM is mandatory across NHS England or settings where NHS England services are delivered and is complimented by pathogen- or disease-specific guidance produced by the UK Health Security Agency. Guidance allows for nuanced local risk assessment, with any additional infection prevention and control measures beyond those outlined in the NIPCM applied at local discretion. The NIPCM does not require patients or visitors to National Health Service settings to routinely wear a face mask. However, there are some circumstances where it is recommended that patients and visitors to care settings wear masks. For example, universal masking should be considered in settings where patients are at high risk of infection due to immunosuppression such as, oncology or haematology. This should be guided by local risk assessment.

Bowel Cancer

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of bowel cancer patients were diagnosed at stage I or II in each year since 2010.

Helen Whately: The following table shows the proportions of staged diagnoses of bowel cancer by diagnosis year from 2013 to 2020 the most recent fully registered diagnosis year.Year Stage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV2013 18% 27% 29% 27%2014 18% 27% 30% 26%2015 18% 26% 30% 26%2016 19% 26% 30% 26%2017 18% 26% 30% 26%2018 19% 25% 30% 25%2019 20% 25% 31% 24%2020 18% 25% 31% 26% For diagnosis years before 2013, the completeness of staging data of stageable cancers, including bowel cancer, was below 70%. Because of the high level of missing stage data, it is not possible to produce reliable estimates of the stage distribution for the diagnosis years 2010 to 2012.

Coronavirus: Darlington

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help housebound constituents in Darlington constituency to access the Covid-19 Vaccine Spring Booster.

Maria Caulfield: The Primary Care Network (PCN) in Darlington chose not to opt-in to the provision of the spring booster vaccination programme and vaccination of Darlington housebound patients is being carried out by two providers: A community pharmacy based in Bishop Auckland and Eston PCN.These two providers are working together to vaccinate the 800 patients identified as housebound by general practitioner (GP) practices in Darlington, with the information co-ordinated by the local GP federation, Primary Health Care Darlington.Housebound patients have been placed in cohorts based on their postcode area and a software model is being used to produce the most efficient route from a travel perspective. The providers are currently in the process of contacting patients to arrange a vaccination date.Vaccinations are being delivered until 30 June and housebound patients can, and will, be vaccinated up until the end of the programme. The first two weeks of the vaccination booster programme (which started on 3 April in England) saw a strong focus placed on care home residents and locally NHS England have been delivering vaccinations to housebound patients over the past four weeks.The latest data shows that 41.8% of NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board’s (ICB) housebound patients have received a vaccine to date, against the ICB average of 41.9%. A comparison of the vaccination uptake rate for housebound patients against the 2022 position shows a very positive improvement of 25.7%.

Bowel Cancer: Diagnosis

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that 75 per cent of bowel cancer patients are diagnosed at stage I or II by 2028.

Helen Whately: Achieving earlier and faster diagnosis of cancer is a priority for the National Health Service. That is why one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028. The latest published data shows this was at 52% between January 2020 to December 2020.The NHS is improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred and is looking into alternative routes into the system, including non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single ‘urgent cancer’ referral pathway but who are at risk of being diagnosed with cancer. 103 NSS pathways are currently operational, with more in development.The NHS bowel cancer screening programme is currently available to everyone aged 60 to 74 years old every two years. Since April 2021, the NHS in England has been gradually reducing the age for bowel screening. The age extension programme began in 2021/22, inviting people aged 56 years old and plans to complete rollout to age 50 years old by 2024/25. This extension was recommended to improve the number of cancers detected and helping to prevent it in some cases.

Cancer: Diagnosis

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of the ambition of 75 per cent of cancer patients to be diagnosed at stage I or II by 2028 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Helen Whately: The Government and NHS England remain committed to the Long-Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028. The latest published data shows this was at 52% between January 2020 to December 2020.

Community Diagnostic Centres

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to assess the efficacy of diagnostic tests carried out within community diagnostic hubs; and what assessment his Department of the impact of improved medical technology on community diagnostic hubs.

Helen Whately: The Department has no current plans to assess the efficacy of diagnostic tests carried out within community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We have not yet assessed the impact of improved medical technology on CDCs.

NHS Trusts

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2023 to Questions 182179, 182180, 182181, 182182 and 182183, on Mental Health Services, on what specific dates has (a) he and (b) other Ministers from his Department met with (i) Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, (ii) Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, and (iii) Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, since September 2022.

Maria Caulfield: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 27 April 2023 to Question 182179.

Cancer: Children and Young People

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve early diagnosis rates for (a) children, (b) teenagers and (c) young adults with sarcoma cancers.

Helen Whately: Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for the National Health Service. That is why one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028, up from 52%, seen between January 2020 to December 2020.NHS England’s comprehensive Early Diagnosis strategy is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to expand national capacity for paediatric interventional radiology training.

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to expand national capacity for paediatric interventional radiology training.

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to increase capacity in England for paediatric interventional radiology training.

Will Quince: As of January 2023, there were 1,584 full-time equivalent (FTE) trainee doctors working in clinical radiology services in the NHS in England. This is an increase of 274 (20.9%) since 2020.The Government funded an additional 20 Specialty Training posts for interventional radiologists in 2021/22 and 2022/23. These increases have expanded the number of radiologists who can train to deliver paediatric interventional radiology.

NHS: British Sign Language

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support available for people who use British Sign Language as their first language in the NHS.

Maria Caulfield: In 2021, NHS England commissioned the North of England Commissioning Support Unit to review commissioning arrangements for British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting services in the National Health Service. The Review concluded that whilst improvements were required in some local areas, there were examples of other areas where successful engagement with the local population delivered higher quality BSL services.NHS England is working with relevant stakeholders to implement the recommendations of the report and will be publishing a ‘Best Practice Guide’ to support local integrated care boards, commissioners and providers to improve provision of BSL interpreting services. NHS England has also established a network of Regional Leads to share the outcomes of the Review, and to support implementation of its recommendations.

Tourette's Syndrome: Mental Health Services

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of potential merits of NICE guidance for (a) Tourrette syndrome and (b) other tic disorders.

Helen Whately: Decisions on which topics the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will develop guidelines on are made by its cross-agency topic prioritisation (CATP) group. The CATP is a formal group that includes senior executives from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the Department.When deciding which topics to develop guidelines on, and in what order, the group takes into account factors such as the health and care burden, the evidence base and variation in practice. The group met on 2 November 2022 to discuss the topic of Tourette syndrome and did not consider this topic to be a priority for guidance development at this time.NICE’s guideline on suspected neurological conditions covers the initial assessment of symptoms and signs that may indicate a neurological condition and makes recommendations on tics and involuntary movement in children. Best practice guidance on the management of Tourette syndrome is accessible from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and available at the following link: https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb/1042

Radiology: Paediatrics

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to expand national capacity for paediatric interventional radiology training.

Will Quince: As of January 2023, there were 1,584 full-time equivalent (FTE) trainee doctors working in clinical radiology services in the National Health Service in England. This is an increase of 274 (20.9%) since 2020.The Government funded an additional 20 Specialty Training posts for interventional radiologists in 2021/22 and 2022/23. These increases have expanded the number of radiologists who can train to deliver paediatric interventional radiology.

Genito-urinary Medicine: Mental Health Services

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to ensure sexual health and HIV are factors considered in the context of improving the physical wellbeing of people who experience mental health issues.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made.

Social Services: Fees and Charges

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people paying for social care are in arrears.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally. Under the Care Act 2014, each local authority is responsible for managing its own debt recovery processes.

Breast Cancer: Health Services

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of breast clinical and medical oncologists to meet patient demand.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. The Government has committed to publishing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. This will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. This Plan is due to be published shortly.

Breast Cancer

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include (a) what measurable steps his Department will take and (b) what funding will be needed to maintain the breast oncology workforce in the NHS workforce plan.

Will Quince: To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, including independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce, including cancer services, though it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services.

NHS: Doctors and Nurses

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) nurses and (b) doctors returned to employment with the NHS in England having previously left NHS employment in each of the last eight years.

Will Quince: The Department does not hold the data requested.

NHS Trusts: Recruitment

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the article in the Health Service Journal entitled Deficit trusts face ‘intimidating conversations’ and orders to hold down staffing, published 25 April 2023, what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS England on reports that some NHS Trusts have been told they are not permitted to increase their total number of staff in 2023-24.

Will Quince: We are backing the National Health Service with record funding including up to £14.1 billion for health and social care over the next two years. We are also growing the workforce and there are record numbers of staff working in the NHS with over 48,700 more staff compared to a year ago including over 5,100 more doctors and over 11,800 more nurses.

Organs: British Nationals Abroad

Ms Marie Rimmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has issued (a) guidance and (b) other advice to (i) medical professionals, (ii) health and care partnerships and (iii) other health-related bodies on the potential impact of section 170 of the Health and Care Act 2022 on clinical practice.

Ms Marie Rimmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to raise awareness of section 170 of the Health and Care Act 2022.

Maria Caulfield: The Department has not issued guidance or advice on the potential impact of Section 170 of the Health and Care Act 2022 on clinical practice. On 15 July 2022, NHS Blood and Transplant wrote to NHS Trust Chief Executives, Medical Directors, Advisory Group Chairs, Clinicians and Recipient and Living Donor Co-ordinators to inform them of the commencement of Section 170 of the Health and Care Act 2022.We continue to engage with colleagues across the public sector, including from NHS Blood and Transplant, the Human Tissue Authority, UK Visas and Immigration, National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service, to raise awareness of the change in the law and build the United Kingdom’s capacity to identify, investigate and prosecute transplant tourism.

Health Services: Waiting Lists

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients on an NHS waiting list have been waiting more than 18 months for treatment.

Will Quince: Having met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures in July 2022, we have now also significantly reduced waits of over 18 months, in line with the targets set out in the elective recovery plan. As a result of the pandemic, the number of patients waiting over 18 months peaked at almost 125,000 in September 2021. Official NHS England statistics show at the end of March 2023 there were 10,737 patients waiting over 18 months, a reduction of over 91% from this peak. As with the two year target successfully met in July 2022, we have always been clear that there will be valid reasons why a small number of patients may need to wait more than 18 months, and for the patients that are still waiting local NHS services are working hard to schedule their appointments in line with clinical advice as a priority.

Cancer: Greater London

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of availability of ultrasound scans for cancer assessments in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.

Helen Whately: No specific assessments have currently been made by the Department at a local level in Enfield North constituency or in London. However, the Department works closely with NHS England to monitor the availability of diagnostic services, including ultrasound scans for cancer assessments. NHS England’s London regional team review imaging activity data on a weekly basis, including ultrasound. Data is reviewed across London, at integrated care system and provider level.£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years, including by increasing the availability of ultrasound scans for cancer assessments in Community Diagnostic Centres.

Community Diagnostic Centres: Heart Diseases

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of community diagnostic centres provide echocardiography through handheld echocardiograms.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally. Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs), are required to deliver full echocardiography scanning functionality and are funded to install the same level of echocardiography equipment as is used in acute hospitals.

Health Services: Waiting Lists

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on eliminating waits of more than 18 months for elective care.

Will Quince: Having met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures in July 2022, we have now also significantly reduced waits of over 18 months, in line with the targets set out in the elective recovery plan. As a result of the pandemic, the number of patients waiting over 18 months peaked at almost 125,000 in September 2021. Official NHS England statistics show at the end of March 2023 there were 10,737 patients waiting over 18 months, a reduction of over 91% from this peak. As with the two year target successfully met in July 2022, we have always been clear that there will be valid reasons why a small number of patients may need to wait more than 18 months, and for the patients that are still waiting local NHS services are working hard to schedule their appointments in line with clinical advice as a priority.

Medical Equipment: Standards

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many UK Conformity Assessed certificates have been issued for each category of (a) invitro diagnostic and (b) other medical devices since the introduction of those certificates. .

Will Quince: Since January 2021 designated UK Approved Bodies have been able to issue UK Conformity Assessed certificates for medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) that require certification by a conformity assessment body prior to the device being placed on the Great Britain market. Low risk medical devices and IVDs do not require Approved Body certification. Approved Bodies issue certificates attesting that the manufacturers Quality Management System complies with regulatory requirements as well as issuing certificates that confirm the devices themselves comply with the requirements. Certificates issued by an Approved Body generally cover more than one device, so the number of certificates does not equate to the number of devices that have been certified. The following table shows the number of certificates issued from January 2021 to 13 April 2023, the most current data set. General Medical DevicesActive Implantable Medical DevicesIVD Medical DevicesTotalJanuary to December 202111200112January to December 202233683347January 2023 to to 13 April 202313802140Total58685599

Medical Equipment: Standards

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many UK Conformity Assessed certificates have been issued for (a) invitro diagnostic and (b) other medical devices since the introduction of those certificates.

Will Quince: Since January 2021 designated UK Approved Bodies have been able to issue UK Conformity Assessed certificates for medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) that require certification by a conformity assessment body prior to the device being placed on the Great Britain market. Low risk medical devices and IVDs do not require Approved Body certification. Approved Bodies issue certificates attesting that the manufacturers Quality Management System complies with regulatory requirements as well as issuing certificates that confirm the devices themselves comply with the requirements. Certificates issued by an Approved Body generally cover more than one device, so the number of certificates does not equate to the number of devices that have been certified. The following table shows the number of certificates issued from January 2021 to 13 April 2023, the most current data set. General Medical DevicesActive Implantable Medical DevicesIn Vitro-Diagnostic Medical DevicesTotalJanuary to December 202111200112January to December 202233683347January 2023 to to 13 April 202313802140Total58685599

Brain Cancer: Research

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Minister of Health and Secondary Care’s oral contribution of 9 March 2023, Official Report, column 509, on Brain Tumour Research Funding, if he will provide a breakdown of the £33.9 million spent on brain cancer research in the last five years.

Will Quince: The information is shown in the attached tables.Attachment (docx, 20.2KB)

Tourette’s Syndrome: Health Services

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing NICE guidance for (a) Tourette’s Syndrome and (b) other tic disorders.

Will Quince: Decisions on which topics the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will develop guidelines on are made by its cross-agency topic prioritisation (CATP) group. The CATP is a formal group that includes senior executives from the Department, NICE, NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.When deciding which topics to develop guidelines on, and in what order, the group takes into account factors such as the health and care burden, the evidence base and variation in practice. The group met on 2 November 2022 to discuss the topic of Tourette syndrome and did not consider this topic to be a priority for guidance development at this time.NICE’s guideline on suspected neurological conditions covers the initial assessment of symptoms and signs that may indicate a neurological condition and makes recommendations on tics and involuntary movement in children. Best practice guidance on the management of Tourette syndrome is available from the British Medical Journal which is available at the following link:https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb/1042

NHS: Training

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any NHS-employed staff are (a) required or (b) requested to undertake unpaid training during non-work hours.

Will Quince: This information is not held centrally.

Out-patients: Telemedicine

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many virtual outpatient appointments have been held in each of the past 12 months.

Will Quince: The data requested can be found in the below table.MonthTotal virtual outpatient appointmentsFebruary 20221,613,780March 20221,818,257April 20221,515,780May 20221,701,990June 20221,565,736July 20221,521,648August 20221,517,706September 20221,527,588October 20221,513,178November 20221,649,166December 20221,367,302January 20231,562,606

Hospitals: Food

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of his Department's budget was spent on food in hospitals in each of the last five years; and what proportion of the food supplied to hospitals is produced byUKfarmers.

Will Quince: The following table shows how much was spent by National Health Service trusts providing inpatient food services in each of the last five years.Inpatient food service costs (£ millions)2021/22£660.22020/21£617.82019/20£630.52018/19£633.82017/18£590.1Source: ERIC 2021/2022Data is not held regarding the proportion of food supplied to hospitals that is produced by United Kingdom farmers.

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust: Hospital Beds

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average bed occupancy was for the St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average bed occupancy was for the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Will Quince: From 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, average general and acute bed occupancy was 97.4% at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals, and 93.0% at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals.

Health Services: Technology

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisal guidance is implemented by (a) breast cancer and (b) other services within three months of publication.

Will Quince: The National Health Service in England is legally required to make funding available for treatments recommended in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisals, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. Funding is available through the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of NICE’s draft guidance for cancer medicines recommended by NICE.The 2023/24 standard contract, which applies to all contracts between NHS commissioners and providers, also stipulates that, where any service involves or may involve the prescribing of medicines, the provider must ensure that its formulary reflects all relevant positive NICE technology appraisals and must make available to service users all relevant treatments recommended in positive NICE technology appraisals.

Members: Correspondence

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April to Question 181288 on Members: Correspondence, for what reasons his Department has not responded to that correspondence.

Will Quince: I replied to the hon. Member on 27 April 2023.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Research

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing additional funding for research into treatments for myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Will Quince: The Department has asked the UK Clinical Research Collaboration to convene a subgroup on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) with a range of stakeholders, including research funders, to ensure high quality applications for research into ME/CFS and support the research community to build capacity and capability.On 12 May 2022, we announced the intention to develop a cross-Government Delivery Plan for ME/CFS in England. The delivery plan will build on the recommendations of the ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership and the recently updated guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to ensure that people living with ME/CFS have the appropriate support.

Department of Health and Social Care: Training

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on staff training related to diversity and inclusion in 2022.

Will Quince: During the calendar year of 2022 the Department spent £4,650 inclusive of VAT on diversity and inclusion related training. The table below provides a breakdown of this spend: TrainingSpendLet’s Talk about Race£3000The Power of Staff Networks training£1650

Jason Offshore Equipment Company: Contracts

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the contract with procurement reference CF-0036000D0O000000rwimUAA, awarded 6 June 2020 to Jason Offshore Equipment, what the reason is for the time taken to publish the contract and justification.

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the contract with procurement reference CF-0036000D0O000000rwimUAA, awarded 6 June 2020 to Jason Offshore Equipment, by what date the products purchased were delivered.

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the contract with procurement reference CF-0036000D0O000000rwimUAA, awarded 6 June 2020 to Jason Offshore Equipment, whether all of the products purchased were of usable quality.

Will Quince: The Contracts Finder Awarded Opportunity Notice for a contract for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) awarded to Jason Offshore Equipment was published on 25 November 2020. The redacted contract document was uploaded to our e-Procurement system at the time this notice was created and published but owing to a systems problem it did not appear on the notice on Contracts Finder. The Department was recently made aware of this and we took immediate steps to correct this error. A new Contracts Finder Awarded Opportunity notice was published on 24 April 2023 replacing the version published on 25 November 2020 and including the contract document which is available at the following link:https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/ee49a66d-1532-4164-828b-57d1be9e6ac5The PPE products for this contract were delivered to the Department between the period 15 June 2020 and 18 October 2020. All of the products purchased have been assessed as usable quality and have been marked for release into health and social care settings.

Diabetes: Medical Equipment

Sir Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase equality of access to medical technologies for people with type one diabetes.

Will Quince: NHS England have achieved their Long-Term Plan objective of 20% of all Type 1 diabetes patients in receipt of Flash Glucose Monitoring by April 21. Performance was 50% at June 2021 with an even distribution of access across all deprivation quintiles.The ratio of prescribing Flash glucose monitoring between the most and least affluent areas has been reviewed and has reduced in every English region. When the programme started Flash was twice more likely to be prescribed to patients living in the most affluent areas, but current ratios show virtual parity between the most and least deprived patient groups across England.

Breast Cancer: Health Services

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide specific funding for increasing the number of staff in the breast cancer workforce who deliver systemic anti-cancer treatment.

Will Quince: In 2023/24 NHS England will fund an expansion of cancer and diagnostics specialists, including those who will deliver systemic anti-cancer treatment. This includes, additional medical training places including for clinical/medical oncology, radiology, histopathology, and gastroenterology, grants to enable over 1,000 cancer nurse specialists and chemotherapy nurses to step into these roles or support their development in-role and a wider workforce development through establishing diagnostic training academies, including breast imaging and developing cancer support worker training.Spending plans for individual budgets for 2024/25, including for the cancer workforce, are subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and will be finalised in due course. Spending plans for subsequent years will be subject to future spending reviews.

Secure Psychiatric Units: Staff

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of staffing levels for substantive contracts on the delivery of NHS services in secure units.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. Staffing levels are the responsibility of individual providers.

NHS: Databases

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned NHS Federated Data Platform, what steps the Government is taking to (a) assess the suitability of the businesses bidding for the contract, (b) ensure that patient’s consent is received before personal and sensitive data is shared with the winning company and (c) prevent the misuse of personal and sensitive data by the winning company.

Will Quince: Regarding the suitability of businesses bidding for the contract, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton on 1 December to Question 90852.Regarding the assurance that patient’s consent is received before personal and sensitive data is shared with the successful bidder, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Norwich South on 22 September 2022 to Question 49205.Regarding prevention of the misuse of personal and sensitive data by the successful bidder, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Manchester Gorton on 30 March 2023 to Question 171540.

Health Services: Left Handed People

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that left-handed staff are able to use medical equipment effectively.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential barriers faced by left-handed medical staff in their daily work.

Will Quince: No assessment has been made. National guidance from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Medical Devices Safety Officers network advise that staff should be trained and competent to use all medical devices introduced into clinical practice.

Hospital Beds

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many beds, including those at home or in the community, were open to the NHS in (a) September and (b) December 2022.

Will Quince: The information is not available in the format requested.

Prescriptions

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce overprescribing.

Will Quince: In September 2021, the Government published its review of overprescribing ‘Good for you, good for us, good for everybody’, ‘National overprescribing review report’. The review report evaluated the extent, causes and consequences of overprescribing and made recommendations to address it. A copy of the report can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-overprescribing-review-reportLed by the National Clinical Director for Prescribing, NHS England and partner organisations are working to implement long term, sustainable reductions to overprescribing. This work includes: tThe development of national resources to help practices improve the consistency of repeat prescribing processes, supported by training;the publication of NHS England’s prescribed medicines review report, ‘Prescribed medicines review: summary’ which includes information to help systems support patients who take medicines associated with dependence and withdrawalwithdrawal; andinterventions to reduce polypharmacy. A copy of the report can be found at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prescribed-medicines-review-report/prescribed-medicines-review-summary

Medical Records: Children

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of a consistent child identifier for children with complex health needs.

Neil O'Brien: Every child is assigned a National Health Service number at birth or the first time they have contact with NHS services. The NHS number acts as a unique patient identifier and is used to share information within electronic healthcare records. This contributes to improved health outcomes for children including those with complex health needs, by ensuring that health professionals identify patients correctly and have access to information to inform the delivery of appropriate care.

Fats

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the prevalence of trans fats in food in the UK.

Neil O'Brien: No estimate has been made. The most recent data from the United Kingdom National Diet and Nutrition Survey, collected between 2016 and 2019, show that average trans fat intakes in the UK are 0.5-0.6% of total energy intake for adults, and 0.5% for children. This is well within the UK recommended maximum of no more than 2% of total energy. Trans fat intakes in the UK have declined substantially since the 1980s and 1990s due to the voluntary removal of artificial trans fats from processed foods by the food industry, with some additional work to reduce levels of trans fats in food being undertaken between 2011 and 2013.

Health: Screening

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of  invitations to NHS Health Checks for those aged 40-74 sent between 2018 and 2022 were (a) accepted and (b) completed.

Neil O'Brien: The Department does not collect information on whether or not NHS Health Check invitations are accepted. Between January 2018 and December 2022 42.9% of people invited completed an NHS Health Check.

Ovarian Cancer: Screening

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether an assessment has been made of the potential merits of including advice on the symptoms of ovarian cancer as part of the NHS Health Check for women aged 40 to 74 years old to increase awareness.

Neil O'Brien: No specific assessment has been made.

Electronic Cigarettes: West Northamptonshire

Andrew Lewer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release, Crackdown on illegal sale of vapes, published on 9 April 2023, how much of the £3 million funding for tackling the illegal sale of vapes will be allocated to West Northamptonshire.

Neil O'Brien: Details of funding allocated to specific localities has not yet been determined.

Health: Screening

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the public aged 40- to 74 have been invited for an NHS Health Check in each local authority in the last five years.

Neil O'Brien: Local authority level data on the proportion of eligible people invited for an NHS Health Check between April 2018 and December 2022 is available at the following link:https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/nhs-health-check-detailed/data#page/3/gid/1938132726/pat/15/par/E92000001/ati/402/are/E06000047/iid/91111/age/219/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/5/cid/4/tbm/1/page-options/car-do-0

Mental Health Services: Staff

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how may full-time equivalent call handlers his Department has employed to work on NHS-run dedicated 24/7 helplines for patients experiencing a mental health crisis in the last 12 months.

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of calls to 24/7 helplines run by the NHS for patients experiencing a mental health crisis that were (a) made and (b) answered in each of the past 12 months.

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the (a) average and (b) longest response time for calls to 24/7 helplines run by the NHS for patients experiencing a mental health crisis in the past 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: The commissioning and staffing of the 24/7 all-age urgent mental health helplines in England is a matter for individual mental health providers and National Health Service workforce information is not collected centrally at the level of detail requested. NHS England estimates that these helplines are managing around 200,000 to 220,000 calls each month. Information on the number of calls made and answered and the length of time taken to answer calls is not currently available although the intention is to have a national reporting package in place that can provide this information by 1 April 2024, once all systems have integrated their 24/7 helplines with NHS 111.

Lung Diseases: Screening

Taiwo Owatemi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2023 to Question 147190 on NHS: Tomography, if he will publish (a) a list of the Targeted Lung Health Check sites operating in England, (b) each site’s CT scanner capacity and (c) planned Targeted Lung Health Check sites due to open in 2023-24.

Helen Whately: Information on where Targeted Lung Health Checks are currently operating is available at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lung-health-checks/There are no plans to publish each Targeted Lung Health Check site’s CT scanner capacity. Coverage of the programme will continue to expand in 2023/24.

Radiology: Paediatrics

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure equal access to paediatric interventional radiology services in the UK.

Helen Whately: The Department regularly discusses the equity of access to health services with NHS England. We will discuss access to paediatric interventional radiology services specifically with NHS England.

Parkinson's Disease: Enfield North

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the mental health of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s in Enfield North constituency.

Helen Whately: The Government is committed to supporting everyone’s mental health and wellbeing and ensuring that the right support is in place, including for those with long term physical health conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. The National Health Service recognises that two-thirds of people with a common mental health problem also have a long-term physical health problem, and that integrating talking and psychological therapy services with physical health services can provide better support and achieve better outcomes. All local commissioners are expected to commission NHS talking therapies which are integrated into physical healthcare pathways. The Government announced on 24 January 2023 that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy, with mental health as one of the conditions covered. This will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. We will cover the patient pathway from prevention to treatment and set out the standards patient should expect in the short term and over a five-year timeframe.

Lung Diseases: Screening

Taiwo Owatemi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2023 to Question 147190 on NHS: Tomography, how many and what proportion of mobile CT scanners are shared between more than one targeted lung health check site.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally.

HIV Infection: Mental Health Services

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increased integrated care between HIV and mental health services.

Neil O'Brien: Specialised human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) inpatient and outpatient services have been identified as key areas for greater integrated care system leadership by NHS England and integrated care boards to allow local systems to simplify and strengthen HIV care pathways with other services, including psychosocial support and mental health services. The national Service Specification for Adult HIV services is also currently under review and development by a Specification Working Group (SWG), with the oversight of the HIV Clinical Reference Group. The SWG will ensure that the revised specification reflects any changes in practice since 2013, ensures close working with other relevant services and is fit for purpose in the new commissioning landscape.

Dental Services: Fees and Charges

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the 8.5 per cent increase in patient charges on access to NHS dentistry.

Neil O'Brien: The Department has produced an Impact Assessment with respect to the uplift of National Health Service dental charges for patients in England from 24 April 2023, which is available from the following link:https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/367/impacts/2023/41Alongside this, and in line with our Public Sector Equality duty, the Department has also considered the impact of the change on equality and on those from disadvantaged groups. We have frozen dental patient charges since 2020 whilst other similar charges such as for NHS prescriptions have increased. This is despite rising inflation and increases in costs of delivering NHS care.The uplift of NHS dental charges by 8.5% from 24 April 2023 will raise important revenue for pressurised NHS budgets and NHS dental services following COVID-19 restrictions. We consider it to be a proportionate rise as it remains below the Consumer Prices Index, which has increased by 17.9% since December 2020, and represents a £2 increase for a Band One course of treatment.The qualifying criteria for the range of exemptions to NHS dental charges and support through the low-income scheme remain unchanged, mitigating the impact of uplifts on those who would be most affected. Just under half of NHS dental patients were treated free of charge in the 2021/22 financial year.

Dental Services: Standards

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) patient access to and (b) workforce retention in NHS dentistry.

Neil O'Brien: We are currently working on a plan for dentistry, to improve access to dental care across England. There are several fronts where we need to take further action to support and recover activity in National Health Service dentistry, to improve access to care for all ages.Our plan for dentistry will build upon the first package of reforms agreed in July 2022, which included changes to banding and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value. Our plan will include addressing how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients, and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.

Dental Services: Standards

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of access to NHS dentistry in (a) Liverpool, Walton constituency and (b) England.

Neil O'Brien: The Department routinely monitors dental statistics, published by NHS Digital, which brings together information on National Health Service dental activity in England, including at NHS Commissioning Regions and local authority levels. NHS Dental Statistics for England 2021/22 is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics/2021-22-annual-report

Home Office

Asylum: Portland Port

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2023 to Question 181795 on Asylum: Portland, for what reason she has not provided specific information requested in response to parts (a) to (i) of that question.

Robert Jenrick: Those accommodated on the barge in Portland will already be in the asylum system, having been through initial screening and checks. They will have had their fingerprints and identities recorded by the Home Office as part of robust security checks prior to going aboard.Those being accommodated are likely to come from various countries, and already in the asylum system, having been through initial screening and checks. They will be non-detained. It will be managed by a specialist and experienced provider, which has a strong track record of providing this kind of accommodation. We will continue to work closely with the councils, communities, and key local partners to manage any impact in Dorset. If someone is late returning from a visit off the vessel, they will be contacted to ascertain their whereabouts.The provision of an accommodation barge at Portland Port will provide the capacity for a maximum of 506 asylum seekers. The vessel will contain multiple occupancy rooms that are an appropriate size for the number of occupants in the appropriate space standard. The vessel will always remain in line with marine industry safety regulations and meet all statutory requirements.There will be adequate accommodation, catering, laundry, facilities to support their well-being and transport to and from the Port into the local community. The site at Portland and is designed to be as self-sufficient as possible, in order to minimise the impact on the local community. Legal representatives will be allowed, though any entry into and or movement through the port is controlled by the security provider.We will assess individual’s suitability to reside at Portland, appropriate procedures will be in place to prevent the spread of infectious disease, which is being considered by the Multi Agency Forum health subgroup.All information regarding the Bibby Stockholm vessel in Portland can be found on the asylum accommodation factsheet found here: Portland_Factsheet_050423.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).

Home Office: Official Cars

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May to Question 183361 on Home Office: Official Cars, whether her Department records data on the frequency with which the Ministers of State for (a) Security, (b) Immigration, and (c) Crime, Policing and Fire use ministerial cars provided by the Government Car Service.

Chris Philp: The Home Office does not regularly collect this data.

Stop and Search: Demonstrations

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to extend stop and search powers to help the police tackle protestors who are seeking to cause serious disruption.

Chris Philp: The Public Order Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 2nd May 2023 has introduced new suspicion-led and suspicion-less stop and search powers to help police to deal with disruptive protestors.When commenced, these new stop and search powers will enable the police to proactively tackle highly disruptive protest offences by searching for and seizing items which are made, adapted or intended to be used in connection with protest-related offences.In their 2021 report on the policing of protests, His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services agreed that such powers would have an operational benefit to police.

Fire and Rescue Services: Vetting

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to strengthen police record and background checks on fire and rescue service personnel.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to ensure fire and rescue authorities are able to carry out thorough record checks.

Chris Philp: We want to see fire and rescue services which demonstrate consistently high standards of integrity. We introduced new legislation to increase eligibility for background checks in April to enable standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks to be conducted on all fire and rescue authority (FRA) employees.We are setting clear expectations on how eligibility should be used. The Fire and Rescue National Framework and a new Safeguarding Fire Standard - to which all services must have regard - state that appropriate and proportionate processes should be in place.

Asylum: Sudan

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether people with Sudanese citizenship will be able to apply for asylum in the UK.

Robert Jenrick: The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it. Between 2015 and 2022, we have offered places to almost half a million (481,804) people from all over the world seeking safety with our country specific and resettlement schemes.The UK’s resettlement approach will continue to work with the UNHCR and focus on those who are most vulnerable and will benefit most from our support. The UK is proud to have welcomed Sudanese nationals through both our UK Resettlement Scheme and Community Sponsorship in 2021 and 2022.We also welcome eligible Sudanese nationals through our refugee family reunion route. This policy has reunited many refugees with their family members; more than 44,600 family reunion visas have been granted since 2015, with over half issued to children. This policy also makes clear the discretion to grant visas outside the Immigration Rules, which caters for extended family members in exceptional circumstances.

Demonstrations: Infrastructure

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help prevent protesters from interfering with (a) roads, (b) airports, (c) railways and (d) other key national infrastructure.

Chris Philp: The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC Act) came into force on 28th April 2022. This legislation raised the maximum penalty for wilful obstruction of the highway, ensuring offenders receive proportionate sentences for the disruption they cause. The PCSC Act 2022 also introduced a statutory offence of public nuisance and abolished the existing common law offence. This provides clarity to the police and potential offenders, giving clear notice of what conduct is forbidden.The Public Order Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 2nd May 2023, will improve the police’s ability to respond to highly disruptive tactics such as interfering with roads and other key national infrastructure. The lock-on offence, alongside the wilful obstruction of the highway offence, will enable police to deal effectively with protestors who interfere with roads.In addition, the Public Order Act 2023 introduced the new offence of interference with key national infrastructure. This offence covers any behaviour which prevents or significantly delays the operation of key infrastructure. This includes airports, railways, printing presses and downstream oil and gas infrastructure. This offence will attract a maximum penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.

Genocide: Rwanda

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answers of 14 July 2022 to Question 29907 and of 6 September 2023 to Question 40743 on Genocide: Rwanda, whether she has had recent discussions with the Metropolitan Police Service regarding Rwandan nationals in the UK allegedly involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide or torture in relation to the 1994 genocide; and what information her Department holds on when those investigations will be completed; and if she will make a statement.

Chris Philp: All meetings held by the Home Secretary in her Ministerial capacity are routinely released in quarterly Departmental transparency returns. The latest transparency returns can be found here: Home Office: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)The Metropolitan Police has national responsibility for carrying out UK police inquiries for the investigation of all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture. The Home Office do not hold information as to when any police investigations are likely to conclude. The Home Secretary will not be making a statement at this time.

Anti-social Behaviour: Temporary Accommodation

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, published on 27 March 2023, what steps she is taking to help ensure the security of people in communal hostel accommodation; and if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the use of NAPpads for homeless people.

Chris Philp: On 27 March we published the Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) Action Plan. The ASB Action Plan commits to tackling ASB across five key themes: stronger punishment; making communities safer; building local pride; prevention and early intervention; and improving data, reporting and accountability for action.This plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we will work with 10 police force areas, but from 2024 we will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales. We are also providing up to £50m to support the provision of Immediate Justice, by issuing out of court disposals with conditions to swiftly repair any damage – the aim being for them to start within 48 hours of the offence. This will start in 10 initial trailblazer police force areas and be rolled out nationally in 2024.No assessment has been made on the use of NapPads for homeless people.

Business: Software

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the press release published by her Department on 24 April 2023, what steps she is taking to ensure that businesses operating on remote platform based models carry out adequate checks on their users.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has for the number of people working illegally on app-based work platforms.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office does not have an estimate of the number of individuals working illegally specifically on app-based work platforms. Employers are required to undertake right to work checks on any prospective employee to confirm their legal status. It is a criminal offence for employers to knowingly enter a contract of employment with an individual who does not have a right to work in the UK. Employers that have not conducted the correct checks can face a civil penalty of up to £20,000 per illegal worker and closure of their business. Tackling illegal migration is a key Government priority, including illegal working. During the first quarter of 2023, a total of 1,303 Immigration Enforcement visits took place across the UK to identify illegal working. The Home Office is working with all stakeholders, including law enforcement partners to drive collaboration on tackling illegal working. This includes platform-based business models to ensure compliant recruitment and on-boarding practices, whilst also maintaining protection of legitimate workers and those at risk of exploitation.

Visas: Families

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to review the minimum income requirement threshold for Family visas.

Robert Jenrick: We keep all our immigration routes under review.

Home Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s publication of government procurement card spending over £500 for February 2023, what the (a) nature and (b) purpose was of the device built for the Clandestine Channel Threat Command team on which £4,433.79 was spent across six transactions from 2 to 13 February.

Robert Jenrick: This equipment was purchased by SBOC to support the delivery of an IT project to improve communications for first responders to Small Boats events.

Immigration: Biometrics

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who have submitted biometric testing documents in support of an application for indefinite leave to remain have been waiting (a) 6 months (b) 9 months (c) 12 months (d) 18 months and (e) more than two years for a decision on that application.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of people who have submitted biometric testing documents in support of an indefinite leave to remain application have been waiting (a) 6 months (b) 9 months (c) 12 months (d) 18 months and (e) more than two years for a decision to be reached on that application.

Robert Jenrick: The information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.

Home Office: Deloitte

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract awarded by her Department to Deloitte LLP on 1 February (C20345), if she will publish copies of (a) Appendix B - the Service Specification and (b) Annex 4 - the initial Statement of Work agreed for that contract.

Robert Jenrick: The additional agreement information for the contract awarded to Deloitte LLP awarded on 1 February 2023 is withheld for commercial and operational security reasons.A redacted agreement is available on Contract Finder at Proc 834 Small Boat Arrivals - Contracts Finder.

Visas: Sudan

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applications are currently outstanding for Sudanese nationals applying for entry clearance to the UK on a (a) Spouse and family (b) family reunion visa.

Robert Jenrick: The number of outstanding applications are published in quarterly transparency data, but these are not broken down by nationality. The most recent data can be found at www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q4-2021.

Visas: Graduates

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to review the length of Graduate visas.

Robert Jenrick: We keep our immigration policies under constant review.

TLScontact

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the ability of TLScontact to meet the terms of its contract with her Department.

Robert Jenrick: UKVI closely monitor and manage the contract with TLS Contact on a daily basis and robustly review how they are performing to ensure we are providing a high-quality service for our visa customers.This includes holding regular reviews to assess their performance in line with the Service Level Agreements in the contract and to ensure any service level failures are identified and resolved. We have a clear governance process in place to ensure that any incidents, risks and issues are effectively addressed.

British Nationality: Sudan

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications made in Sudan for citizenship registrations are currently awaiting a decision (a) in total and (b) for children.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office is unable to provide the data requested as it is not available.

Refugees: Afghanistan

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to issue Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme personnel and their families housed in bridging hotels with notice of their eviction from their hotel accommodation.

Robert Jenrick: Bridging hotels are not, and were never designed to be, permanent accommodation. That is why dedicated teams across central and local government have supported over 9,000 Afghans into settled homes.However, around 8,000 remain in hotel accommodation. Long-term residency in hotels has prevented some Afghans from properly putting down roots, committing to employment and fully integrating into communities. From the end of April 2023, individuals staying in hotels and serviced accommodation began to receive legal notice to leave their temporary accommodation by a certain date.Dedicated cross-government casework teams, made up of Home Office Liaison Officers and DWP staff, are based in hotels and are working alongside local authority officials to provide advice to Afghans, including information on how to rent in the private sector, find employment and English language training.The government is providing £285 million of new funding to local authorities supporting the Afghan resettlement schemes. This includes £35 million which will go towards increasing the level of support available as well as a £250 million expansion of the Local Authority Housing Fund to help councils to source homes for Afghans currently in bridging accommodation.This new, generous package of support comes in addition to the existing support available for people on the ACRS and ARAP schemes, including access to welfare system, the right to work and full access to public services.The move from hotels into settled accommodation is in the best interests of families and individuals and will enable them to benefit from the freedoms of independent living that only suitable non-hotel accommodation can provide.

Asylum: Housing

Richard Drax: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plan to take to screen asylum seeks accommodated on a barge in Portland Port.

Robert Jenrick: All asylum seekers who arrive in United Kingdom are subject to robust security checks at Manston. Additionally, the Home Office provides 24/7 health facilities at Manston, including trained medical staff and a doctor for all those on site and people are taken to hospital for further care if needed and all asylum seekers undergo a health check upon arrival.The Home Office will assess an individual's suitability to reside at Portland prior to placement there and will continue to assess each person's suitability at regular intervals whilst on the vessel.

Asylum: Housing

Richard Drax: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of housing asylum seekers at Portland Port on local public services.

Robert Jenrick: We are working closely with key local stakeholders, including local authorities, Dorset Police and NHS to develop bespoke plans that minimise the impact on local services. We have made clear that additional funding will be made available as appropriate to support these plans.

Refugees: Rwanda

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 April 2023 to Question 180360 on Refugees: Rwanda, when she plans to set out the criteria for deciding which vulnerable refugees will be resettled from Rwanda.

Robert Jenrick: As set out in the Memorandum of Understanding, a small number of the most vulnerable refugees in Rwanda will be resettled in the UK as part of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.More details on the resettlement of vulnerable refugees will be set out in due course.

Border Controls: Counter-terrorism

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing documentation to people who have been stopped under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act so that they may potentially claim from travel insurers for any additional expenses incurred.

Tom Tugendhat: Under Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 Counter-Terrorism Police Officers are able to stop, question and if necessary, detain and search individuals travelling through UK ports, to determine whether they appear to be someone who is or has been involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.If a person is stopped and questioned this may inconvenience their ongoing travel arrangements. The Code of Practice is clear that Examining officers must be aware of the potential disruption to travel to which an examination may give rise and should seek to minimise such disruption wherever practicable.Where appropriate the examining officers will try to assist with seeking advice from transport operators on options for alternative travel arrangements. This may include the examining officer assisting the person with alternative travel arrangements although they may not be able to guarantee or book alternative travel.

Fraud: Criminal Investigation

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to launch a review of police (a) procedures and (b) resources on the investigation of fraud to ensure victims receive timely access to justice.

Tom Tugendhat: The Fraud Strategy, published earlier this month, set out our approach to improving the criminal justice response to fraud.We are creating a National Fraud Squad with 400 new specialist fraud investigators to investigate and disrupt more fraudsters.We have committed to assess the impact the additional posts have made and to undertake a new independent review into the challenges to investigating and prosecuting fraud.We have also updated the Strategic Policing Requirement to give greater prominence to fraud at local force level.In addition, we are improving the support victims receive by replacing Action Fraud.

Telephone Tapping

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle illegal data processing of telephone conversations without consent.

Tom Tugendhat: Section 3 of the Investigatory Powers Act creates the offence of unlawful interception.The offence is committed if a person intentionally and without lawful authority intercepts a communication in the course of its transmission, in the UK by means of either a public postal service or a public or private telecommunications system.

Police National Computer: Cybersecurity

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April to Question 181661 on Police National Computer: Cybersecurity, answered on 24th April 2023, for what reason the ACRO website has not been restored.

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what effect the change from automated to manual processing has had on the processing time of Subject Access Requests to ACRO.

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) ensuring ACRO's service resources are allocated based on demand and (b) shifting those resources from paid to free services.

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April to Question 181663 on Police National Computer: Cybersecurity, when she expects investigations to allow ta conclusive assessment of potential data loss following the ACRO cyber attack.

Tom Tugendhat: It remains the case at this time that ACRO has no conclusive evidence that any personal data has been affected by the cyber security incident and there does not appear to be any potential risk to customers’ payment information or to the information / certificates that ACRO sent to individuals following their applications. Detailed investigations are continuing but it is not possible to provide a definitive timescale for their conclusion.ACRO’s service resources are demand led and its human and other resources are dynamically allocated according to need. ACRO aims to provide the best service to all its customers, whether members of the public or other organisations, irrespective of if they are receiving a paid or a free service, and in doing so to meet all its service requirements.The statutory response for a Subject Access Request must be made within one month of receiving the request. Subject Access for the Police National Computer remains a priority within ACRO and responses are within the time limits.ACRO is working with its partners to ensure that its website is as secure as possible before it is brought back online.

Naturalisation: Applications

Darren Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the (a) median and (b) mean processing times for (i) registration and (ii) naturalisation applications in each year from 2017 to 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on naturalisation and registration applications made and completed every quarter on the Gov.UK website. This includes performance against the six-month service standard for completing applications. The most recent data set was published on 23 February 2023 and can be found here:Visas and citizenship data: Q4 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Vishal Mehrotra

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the implications for its policies of the decision by Sussex Police not to review the case of Vishal Mehrotra.

Chris Philp: Decisions concerning individual investigations are the responsibility of the respective police force’s chief officers to make.As police forces are independent of government, it would not be appropriate to comment on such decisions.Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne said she was "deeply moved and reminded again of the awful tragedy that the Mehrotra family has endured for so many years" after listening to the podcast.

Department for Work and Pensions

Cost of Living Payments: Pensioners

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure pensioners eligible for Pension Credit submit a cost of living payment claim before the deadline on 19 May 2023.

Laura Trott: Pensioners who make a claim for Pension Credit by 19 May will automatically receive the first of this year’s cost of living payments worth £301 - if their claim is successfully backdated for the maximum period of 3 months. There is no need to make a separate claim for cost of living payments.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of (a) the cost to the public purse of increasing the State Pension paid to UK pensioners resident overseas to the level it would have been had it increased in line with inflation in each year since 2010 and (b) the cost to the public purse of continuing to increase the State Pension paid to UK pensioners resident overseas in line with inflation in each year between 2023 and 2030, starting from that value.

Laura Trott: UK State Pensions are payable worldwide and up-rated overseas where there is a legal requirement to do so. The policy on up-rating UK State Pensions overseas is long-standing and has been supported by successive post-war Governments for over 70 years. In response to (a): No recent assessment has been made of the annual cost of uprating the UK State Pension to UK pensioners living abroad. In response to (b): The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average amount of state pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK is; and if he will provide a breakdown of the average state pension payment in each country in which recipients reside.

Laura Trott: In November 2020, the average (mean) amount of State Pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK was £70.61 per week. Table 1. Average Amount of State Pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK, November 2020 ResidencyMean Weekly State Pension Amount Outside United Kingdom£ 70.61 Source: Stat-Xplore - Home (dwp.gov.uk) Below is a table of the average (mean) amount of State Pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK, broken down by country of residence, in November 2020. Table 2. Average Amount of State Pension by Country of Residence, November 2020 Country of Residence Mean Weekly State Pension Amount Abroad - Not known£ 112.62Albania£ 110.57Alderney£ 126.99Algeria£ 62.41Andorra£ 94.96Anguilla£ 64.93Antigua£ 74.02Argentina£ 65.18Aruba£ 60.29Ascension Island£ 91.68Australia£ 50.09Austria£ 49.24Azerbaijan£ 166.77Bahamas£ 66.64Bahrain£ 97.27Bangladesh£ 39.49Barbados£ 116.97Belarus£ 111.17Belgium£ 63.62Belize£ 85.01Bermuda£ 81.36Bolivia£ 106.19Bosnia and Herzegovina£ 73.12Botswana£ 75.98Brazil£ 81.20Brunei£ 121.78Bulgaria£ 122.47Burkina Faso£ 54.09Cambodia£ 119.76Cameroon£ 58.81Canada£ 46.34Cape Verde£ 52.18Cayman Islands£ 89.42Chile£ 72.13China£ 96.39Colombia£ 89.09Cook Islands£ 57.92Costa Rica£ 81.75Cyprus£ 122.54Denmark£ 58.40Dom Commonwealth (Dominica)£ 77.73Dominican Republic£ 107.52Dutch Caribbean£ 67.76Ecuador£ 85.95Egypt£ 78.64El Salvador£ 80.36Equatorial Guinea£ 142.11Ethiopia£ 88.34Falkland Islands and Dependencies£ 85.64Faroe Islands£ 33.01Fiji£ 73.66Finland£ 58.89France£ 113.52French Overseas Departments£ 84.34French Polynesia£ 55.84Gambia£ 91.46Germany£ 46.48Ghana£ 56.69Gibraltar£ 100.77Greece£ 109.44Greenland£ 23.21Grenada£ 77.33Guam£ 83.49Guatemala£ 77.73Guernsey£ 84.86Guyana£ 60.60Honduras£ 79.02Hong Kong£ 85.42Hungary£ 102.32Iceland£ 71.68India£ 50.10Indonesia£ 106.53Iran£ 70.85Iraq£ 64.11Ireland£ 66.41Isle of Man£ 127.85Israel£ 101.27Italy£ 56.79Jamaica£ 116.05Japan£ 46.97Jersey£ 70.02Jordan£ 67.90Kazakhstan£ 124.13Kenya£ 79.34Kuwait£ 103.54Kyrgyzstan£ 76.07Laos£ 100.66Lebanon£ 88.20Lesotho£ 59.64Liechtenstein£ 28.62Luxembourg£ 83.34Macau£ 77.52Madagascar£ 62.23Malawi£ 71.90Malaysia£ 77.87Malta£ 104.22Mauritius£ 108.25Mexico£ 74.98Moldova£ 124.94Monaco£ 111.96Montserrat£ 65.67Morocco£ 75.51Mozambique£ 74.56Myanmar£ 84.84Namibia£ 70.17Nepal£ 63.99Netherlands£ 55.81Nevis, St Kitts-Nevis£ 75.56New Caledonia£ 79.61New Zealand£ 46.44Nicaragua£ 79.72Nigeria£ 27.65Norfolk Island£ 55.18North Macedonia£ 24.20Norway£ 58.24Oman£ 89.53Pakistan£ 48.74Panama£ 96.96Papua New Guinea£ 75.49Paraguay£ 68.41Peru£ 88.02Philippines£ 138.86Poland£ 59.39Portugal£ 119.47Puerto Rico£ 77.32Qatar£ 113.55Republic of Croatia£ 62.10Republic of Estonia£ 78.98Republic of Georgia£ 129.54Republic of Latvia£ 68.34Republic of Lithuania£ 42.71Republic of Slovenia£ 60.38Romania£ 99.40Russia£ 85.51Saint Helena & Dependencies£ 89.27San Marino£ 29.33Sark£ 117.68Saudi Arabia£ 86.88Senegal£ 74.13Serbia£ 123.58Seychelles£ 79.10Sierra Leone£ 52.66Singapore£ 89.20Solomon Islands£ 79.08Somalia£ 44.20South Africa£ 56.52South Korea£ 41.69Spain£ 120.61Sri Lanka£ 59.98St Lucia£ 76.63St Vincent & Grenadines£ 80.10State Union of Serbia and Montenegro£ 53.44Sudan£ 71.27Suriname£ 151.95Swaziland£ 79.26Sweden£ 57.52Switzerland£ 51.98Syria£ 63.61Tahiti£ 77.00Taiwan£ 105.85Tanzania£ 87.61Thailand£ 119.10The Czech Republic£ 92.30The Slovak Republic£ 49.82Togo£ 50.10Tonga£ 73.36Tours (Individuals on Tour)£ 133.34Trinidad & Tobago£ 55.37Tunisia£ 88.16Turkey£ 132.24Turks and Caicos Islands£ 118.32Uganda£ 88.33Ukraine£ 115.86United Arab Emirates£ 107.46United States£ 74.19United States Minor Outlying Islands£ 75.89Uruguay£ 77.74Vanuatu£ 85.86Venezuela£ 67.62Vietnam£ 125.09Virgin Islands (British)£ 91.77Virgin Islands (USA)£ 72.74Western Samoa£ 34.12Yemen£ 42.90Zambia£ 75.67Zimbabwe£ 48.98 Source: Stat-Xplore - Home (dwp.gov.uk)

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals in receipt of state pension outside the UK reside in (a) a Commonwealth and (b) a non-Commonwealth country.

Laura Trott: There are around 465,000 individuals who are in receipt of State Pension who reside in a Commonwealth country (excluding the UK) and there are around 688,000 individuals who are in receipt of State Pension who reside in a non-Commonwealth Country. Table 1. The number of individuals who are in receipt of the UK State Pension and reside outside the UK, grouped by whether they live in a Commonwealth or non-Commonwealth country, November 2020 Country TypeNumber of Individuals in receipt of State PensionCommonwealth (Exl UK)465,000Non-Commonwealth688,000*Rounded to the nearest 1000 Source: Stat-Xplore - Home (dwp.gov.uk)

State Retirement Pensions: Telephone Services

Tonia Antoniazzi: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of service provision by the Future Pension Centre helpline.

Laura Trott: The DWP Futures Pension Centre helpline has experienced unprecedented levels of contact from customers considering whether to pay voluntary National Insurance Contributions (VNICS) before the deadline. To ensure customers have the time and information to make an informed decision, HM Revenue & Customs has announced it will extend the deadline to pay these contributions until 31 July 2023. DWP have provided additional resource directed to the telephony lines and continue to review resourcing options to meet the current call demand and improve the service.

Department for Work and Pensions: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on radio adverts in each of the the last five years broken down by radio station.

Mims Davies: The Government is strongly supportive of the radio sector and recognises the great value that it offers to communities across the UK. Radio plays an important role in our cross channel strategy, with the merits of its use being assessed in relation to this.Government public information campaigns utilise a wide range of channels to maximise reach and engagement and to ensure our messaging reaches as many people as possible.   Given the size of the ask - five years of individual spend lines across a large number of radio stations – we have instead provided an aggregate total across all years and campaigns. Fiscal yearSpend2018-2019£ 669,0002019-2020£ 466,0002020-2021£2,700,0002021-2022£2,500,0002022-2023£1,700,000

Low Incomes

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of low-income houses which are unable to afford living essentials due to a lack of funds.

Mims Davies: We do not collect this information; however, National Statistics on the number and percentage of people in poverty are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. This can be found here. A family is in combined low income and material deprivation if they have a material deprivation score of 25 or more and a household income below the relevant threshold of contemporary median income, Before Housing Costs. See here. The estimated number of children, working-age adults, and pensioners in combined low income and material deprivation can be found in tables 1_4d, 1_5d and 1_6c, respectively, in the summary-hbai-1994-95-2021-22-tables file.

Asbestos: Health Hazards

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on removal of asbestos of introducing a central register of asbestos cases covering its (a) location and (b) condition.

Mims Davies: The Government is not opposed to any steps which support or improve a safety regime and enable risk to be managed effectively. In Great Britain, the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 already require dutyholders to share information about any asbestos containing materials (ACMs) present with those carrying out work or occupying the building. Dutyholders are required to either survey premises constructed before asbestos was banned or assume it is present and manage their building stock accordingly. Most dutyholders decide to survey and arrange a register and plan of every room or area detailing the presence and type of any ACMs and their condition and quantity. A new central register would need to be considered carefully because it would require significant additional resource from dutyholders and government, which would duplicate the existing information already provided with no clear indication that control of any risk of exposure to asbestos in buildings would be improved.

Health and Safety

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the capability of the Health and Safety Executive to investigate incidents that are deemed to meet the conditions for a mandatory investigation.

Mims Davies: Britain continues to be one of the safest places to work in the world. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carries out planned inspection activity as well as investigating incidents. HSE has discretion as to what incidents it investigates and follows the principles laid out in Sections 6 and 11 in its Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS). HSE’s published Incident Selection Criteria (ISC) gives guidance on matters that would normally be investigated, however there are a number of reasons why incidents meeting the ISC would not be investigated. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has discretion as to the matters it investigates, as such there are no mandatory investigations. Where HSE decides not to investigate matters that are within the criteria, due to competing demands for resources, this is because they are deploying resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. Some investigations are unlikely to lead to further action so resource is better spent on proactive inspection work to prevent incidents happening in the first place. HSE have appropriately trained and experienced inspectors, specialist inspectors and other regulatory staff who can carry out investigations in line with HSE’s policies and procedures, as required. For 2022 / 2023, provisional figures show that 16,500 proactive inspections were carried out by HSE (against a target of 14,000) and were delivered through a mixture of high-risk programmes and campaigns, assurance and priority local visits. During this same period, 85% of fatal investigations were completed within 12 months of assuming primacy from the police (against a target of 80%) and 95% of non-fatal investigations completed within 12 months of the incident (against a target of 90%). This demonstrates HSE has appropriate measures in place to investigate incidents while also completing proactive inspection activity.

Health and Safety

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many mandatory investigations the Health and Safety Executive ended as a result of inadequate resources in each of the last five years.

Mims Davies: Health and Safety Executive (HSE) selects cases for investigation on the basis of its published incident selection criteria (ISC) – incidents which notionally meet the criteria may not be selected for investigation or, where selected, investigations may conclude early for a number of reasons, including decisions around the most efficient deployment of resources. HSE does not hold specific figures relating to investigations falling within in its ISC which were concluded due to inadequate resources.

Occupational Health

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the consultations on occupational health announced in the Budget 2023 will be published; and when the pilot for a subsidy for small businesses to access occupational health services will commence.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he will publish an implementation plan for the announcements on occupational health in the Budget 2023.

Tom Pursglove: Access to Occupational Health (OH) services can play an important role in supporting disabled people and people with health conditions to remain in, and thrive in, work. The Government is working with employers and the commercial OH market to increase access to good quality, cost-effective OH services. This package of activity as set out in the Health Is Everyone’s Business (HiEB) consultation response supports the Government’s ambition to reduce economic inactivity due to long-term sickness. In HiEB, the Government committed to testing a financial incentive (subsidy) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the self-employed to understand whether the scheme can help to increase access for these groups. It was announced in the Spring Budget that this test will be expanded. User-centred design is underway with some small-scale testing of the service planned in 2023. Details of the scheme will be shared ahead of launch activity, including eligibility criteria, subsidy level and location for initial testing.The Government will consult on ways to boost UK occupational health coverage and will also launch a separate consultation on options for incentivising greater take-up of occupational health provision through the tax system. Details on the publication of these consultations will be available in due course.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 04 May to Question 182900 on Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations, what evidence his Department took into consideration when assessing whether those criteria were the most suitable way of assessing people with fluctuating conditions.

Tom Pursglove: The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment was developed in an iterative, transparent and consultative manner, in collaboration with a wide range of experts and through comprehensive public consultation between 2010-2011, prior to PIP being enacted in 2013. The findings of this consultation informed the development of the assessment criteria set out in regulations. All health professionals are required to assess individuals in line with the statutory requirements, including: whether an individual can complete each of the 12 activities; the manner in which they can do it; whether they can complete each activity “safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time period”. When choosing the descriptor, the health professional should also consider an individual’s ability over a 12-month period, ensuring that fluctuations are taken into account. For each activity, if a descriptor applies on more than 50 per cent of the days in the 12-month period, that descriptor should be chosen. In general, health professionals should record function over an average year for conditions that fluctuate over months, per week for conditions that fluctuate by the day, and by the day for conditions that vary over a day. Many of the changes set out in Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper aim to improve our assessment of fluctuating conditions, such as the way we use medical evidence, and developing the capability of our assessors. We will also explore options for introducing a new way of gathering evidence of fluctuation in a person’s condition before their assessment.

Employment: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employers have achieved level (a) one, (b) two and (c) three of the Disability Confident scheme in each of the last five years.

Tom Pursglove: The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Social Security Benefits: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9th March 2023 to Question 156196 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, how many people receiving (a) Employment Support Allowance without receiving Personal Independence Payment and (b) receiving the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity Element of Universal Credit without receiving Personal Independence Payment have been identified by his Department as having a mental and behavioural disorder.

Tom Pursglove: Data on the conditions of those on the Universal Credit (UC) Health Journey is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The department aims to publish a range of information on claimants of Employment and Support Allowance and the health element of UC in due course and will pre-announce any publication in line with normal statistical practices.

Child Trust Fund

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2023 to Question 183063 on Court of Protection, if he will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on allowing access to Child Trust Funds using DWP Appointee status as a proxy for approval.

Tom Pursglove: The DWP appointee system gives access to social security benefits only. It does not give access to monies held in Child Trust Funds. Where the child is incapable of accessing the funds themselves, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides for how a third party can do that on the child’s behalf, namely, through the Court of Protection. There are no plans to change this approach.

Universal Credit: Telephone Services

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 26 April 2023 to Question 182089 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, what the average waiting time was for calls to the Universal Credit helpline in the latest period for which data is available.

Guy Opperman: Please find data below which shows the average speed of answer (ASA) for calls to Universal Credit for the last 2 months.YearMonthBusiness GroupASA2022-2023MarUniversal Credit00:01:282023-2024AprUniversal Credit00:03:39  Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

Recruitment

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's publication entitled Report on Jobs April, published on 10 May 2023, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of trends in the level of permanent staff recruited between January 2021 and April 2023.

Guy Opperman: No such assessment has been made in the light of that report. DWP regularly monitors and assesses a range of timely internal and external indicators on the performance of UK labour market and economy.

Social Security Benefits

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who are not claiming benefits to which they are entitled.

Guy Opperman: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 5616.

Universal Credit: Telephone Services

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2023 to Question 182089 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce the average waiting time for calls to the Universal Credit helpline.

Guy Opperman: DWP plans resourcing according to forecasted telephony demand in an effort to keep wait times down. Wait time performance and forecasted demand is frequently reviewed, and DWP is continually working to improve the service that it delivers.

Universal Credit

Dame Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the inflation-based rise to Universal Credit was paid to claimants in their April benefit payment.

Guy Opperman: Increases in Universal Credit come into force from the start of the first assessment period beginning on or after the first Monday of the tax year. As Universal Credit is a calendar monthly assessed benefit that is paid monthly in arrears, a claimant will receive their uprated benefit award in payments due from 16 May.

Unemployment

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 3.30 of the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, whether the Government has set a target number of inactive individuals (a) of all ages and (b) aged over 50 to help return to work.

Guy Opperman: The Government is committed to supporting inactive people of all ages into work and at the Spring Budget, announced substantial new investment to boost workforce participation. DWP measures at the Spring Budget represent an investment of £3.5bn over 5 years to boost workforce participation. This includes investment to support disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, parents, over-50s, unemployed people and people on Universal Credit and working fewer than full-time hours.

Restart Scheme

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of people sanctioned by the Restart Programme.

Guy Opperman: The Restart Scheme requires providers to work with participants on individual activities with the emphasis on positive engagement. Activities are agreed together, to encourage the participant to complete them voluntarily. Providers may consider mandating participants to undertake activity which helps them to prepare for, or move into, work where reasonable attempts at engagement fail without good reason. Mandation is used in a careful and considered manner.

Universal Credit: Telephone Services

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to Answer of 26 April 2023 to Question 182089 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, whether his Department has a current target call wait time for members of the public contacting the Universal Credit helpline.

Guy Opperman: There are no current wait time targets for calls to the Universal Credit helpline. Where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of percentage of calls answered, and our outsourced suppliers publish this information quarterly at GOV.UK.

Universal Credit

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183414 on Universal Credit: Expenditure, for what reasons there was a higher than forecasted caseload for people with health conditions and therefore receiving a health element in their Universal Credit award in 2021-22.

Guy Opperman: An increased prevalence of disabilities within the UK population is a driver of the forecast; but more recent trends in health conditions have risen further than expected, which is reflected in the difference between caseload forecasts and outturn. To note, DWP only produce a forecast of claimants that receive the health element of Universal Credit and not a forecast of people with ill health.

Personal Independence Payment: Multiple Sclerosis

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had discussions with people with Multiple Sclerosis on the adequacy of (a) informal observations, (b) the 50 percent rule and (c) the 20-meter rule for determining Personal Independence Payment awards.

Tom Pursglove: Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was established in collaboration with a wide range of experts and following a comprehensive public consultation between 2010-2012 with stakeholders, including the Multiple Sclerosis Society. As referenced in my responses on 21 April 2023, UIN181230, and 24 April 2023, UIN181064: We believe the current assessment criteria, including the 20-metre rule, are the best way of identifying people whose physical mobility is most limited and there are no immediate plans to make changes;Informal observations are useful in assessing functional capability and there are no current plans to stop this; andThe department closely monitors all aspects of the assessment process, including how we assess fluctuating health conditions like multiple sclerosis, however there are no current plans to remove the 50 per cent rule. More recently the department ran a series of events with charities (including the MS Society on 30 September 2020) which helped to shape Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper. Many of the changes set out in Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper aim to improve our assessment of fluctuating conditions, such as the way we use medical evidence, and developing the capability of our assessors. We will also explore options for introducing a new way of gathering evidence of fluctuation in a person’s condition before their assessment.

Access to Work Programme

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on providing a cost of living update for the value of Access to Work grant payments.

Tom Pursglove: As all Access to Work grants are tailored to the individual need, there is no automatic uprating. Instead, all increases in support costs are considered and where appropriate awards are increased, up to an upper limit per individual per annum. To provide support for those at the upper limit of Access to Work, the upper limit is normally increased on an annual basis. It was increased to £66,000 from April 2023.

Ministry of Defence

RAF Scampton

Sir Edward Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of transferring RAF Scampton to the Home Department on the preservation of defence heritage.

James Cartlidge: The MInistry of Defence has had to make some difficult decisions to dispose of sites that have become surplus to military requirements in accordance with HM Treasury guidance on the management of surplus government land. Full consideration was given to the history and heritage of the site ahead of the decision to dispose, and plans to protect the heritage for future generations were put in place ahead of closure. These included relocating a number of heritage assets where appropriate, and ensuring the future owners are aware of their responsibilities in the preservation of all listed assets as is standard for all disposals. The responsibility of Scampton has now been officially transferred from the RAF to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, where the final processes will be completed before the site ownership is transferred to the Home Office, where it has been selected to temporarily house asylum seekers.

Armed Forces: Housing

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the process is for determining which contracter carries out (a) renovation and (b) replacement works on military accomodation; and what the criteria is for those contractors to meet.

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department takes to ensure contractors which conduct works on military accommodation are held to account for the quality of their work.

James Cartlidge: The Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) accommodation contracts for Service Family Accommodation (SFA) began on 1 April 2022. There are four Regional Accommodation Maintenance Services (RAMS) contracts that maintain SFA and the community spaces around them. These were awarded to Amey for the North and Central Regions and VIVO for the South East and South West Regions. The criteria for contractors is measured by the extent to which they meet the minimum acceptable level of performance or the higher target level of performance against their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The RAMS contracts each have 38 KPIs against which they are formally managed. Failure to deliver the required level of performance may lead to a formal rectification notice. To date, our suppliers have not performed to expectations and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is holding them robustly to account to improve performance. FDIS accommodation suppliers were directed by the DIO to implement rectification plans to achieve rapid improvements in contract performance. DIO is working to address the issues with suppliers and has proactively managed performance issues through frequent senior level engagement. While this has led to some improvements, we recognise that considerably more needed to be done to ensure service meets the level promised.

Armed Forces: Housing

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the process is for addressing complaints made by armed forces personnel about the condition of their accommodation.

James Cartlidge: There is clear guidance available for Service Families on Gov.uk, detailing the process they should follow should they wish to make a complaint about their Service Family Accommodation.Complaints are handled in three stages, with the aim of making sure that they are fully investigated and promptly put right. If a family is dissatisfied by the response at any stage, they will be given the opportunity to go to the next stage.Stage one complaints are made to MOD's National Accommodation Management Services contractor, Pinnacle, who will investigate and respond. If the family are not satisfied with the outcome, a Stage two complaint can be made to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, who will investigate and respond. Complaints can be escalated to Stage three only where it is believed that accommodation policy has been misinterpreted or misapplied at Stages one or two of the complaints process, where they will be investigated by the Accommodation Complaints Review Panel. If still not satisfied, Service personnel can raise a Service complaint.

Armed Forces: Food Supply

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the contract between BFS Group Ltd and Leidos Supply Ltd for the supply of food to British armed forces personnel throughout the UK, what proportion of eggs used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were sourced from within the UK.

James Cartlidge: All of the eggs used by BFS Group in the service of the contract for the supply of UK Deployable Food in financial year 2022-23 were sourced from the UK.

Armed Forces: Food Supply

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the contract between BFS Group Ltd and Leidos Supply Ltd for the supply of food to British armed forces personnel throughout the UK, what proportion of raw poultry used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 was sourced from within the UK.

James Cartlidge: All of the raw poultry used by BFS Group in the service of the contract for the supply of UK Deployable Food in financial year 2022-23 was sourced from outside the UK.

Armed Forces: Food Supply

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the contract between BFS Group Ltd and Leidos Supply Ltd for the supply of food to British armed forces personnel throughout the UK, what proportion of eggs used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were (a) free range eggs, (b) barn eggs and (c) colony-laid eggs.

James Cartlidge: Information on the proportion of eggs used by the BFS Group in the service of the contract for the supply of UK Deployable Food in financial year 2022-23 is not held. From April 2022 to December 2022 all of the eggs supplied were colony eggs. Free range eggs were introduced in January 2023 for National Training Estate Prime sites supporting Operation INTERFLEX and the Royal Navy. From March 2023 free range eggs were introduced across all sites.

Armed Forces: Housing

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the anual budget is for (a) maintaining and (b) upgrading military accommodation; and what that budget was in each of the last 10 years.

James Cartlidge: In the last seven years, the Ministry of Defence has invested more than £936 million in Service Family Accommodation (SFA) improvements. During financial year (FY) 2021-22, c£179 million (including £36 million of Government Fiscal Stimulus funding) was invested to improve the quality of SFA. The 2022-23 improvement programme was based on a funding level of £185 million. The expenditure for each of the last 10 years is shown below: £millionFY 2013-14FY 2014-15FY 2015-16FY 2016-17FY 2017-18FY 2018-19FY 2019-20FY 2020-21FY 2021-22FY 2022-23Core (Maintenance)101.893115.15482.64973.99782.10880.08488.535122.501137.828103.437Additional Works (Upgrades)106.63674.45566.78887.74782.424115.580123.437152.824179.265185.448 In addition to the above the following was spent on Capital Purchases (new builds): £millionFY 2013-14FY 2014-15FY 2015-16FY 2016-17FY 2017-18FY 2018-19FY 2019-20FY 2020-21FY 2021-22FY 2022-23Capital Purchases116.10339.63419.80411.0310.69027.54742.83030.96575.412143.448

Armed Forces: Pest Control

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much has been spent on pest and rodent control by the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy in each year since 2010 for which figures are available.

James Cartlidge: Pest and rodent control is carried out as part of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation's Facilities Management contracts.The amount spent on pest and rodent control cannot be separately identified from total contract costs.

Ministry of Defence: Land

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to pages 188-189 of the MOD Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22, HC 500, presented to Parliament on 14 July 2022, whether the term Land Dwellings refers to land on which dwellings are situated.

James Cartlidge: "Land Dwellings" refers to Land where the majority of property situated on the Land are dwellings.

Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla: Armed Forces

Jack Brereton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of the role of the armed forces in the King’s Coronation parade.

James Heappey: The coronation was the largest military ceremonial operation for 70 years and involved around 7,000 Armed Forces personnel from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. They were supported by thousands more service personnel and Defence civil servants behind the scenes to deliver a complex plan executed with impressive skill and style. In addition, more than 400 personnel from 33 Commonwealth nations and six British Overseas Territories took part in the procession, in a demonstration of the United Kingdom’s close links with its allies and partners around the world.

Defence

Richard Foord: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the UK’s defence readiness.

James Heappey: Defence takes a threat-led approach to setting our readiness, ensuring that the Armed Forces are ready to deter adversaries and defend the nation. Our capability and readiness levels are regularly reviewed to ensure that they are consistent with our strategic approach and are relevant to the threat.

Ministry of Defence: Land

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to pages 188-189 of the MOD Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22, HC 500, presented to Parliament on 14 July 2022, whether the term Land Other Buildings refers to land on which building classed as Other Buildings are situated.

James Cartlidge: "Land Other Buildings" refers to Land where the majority of property situated on the Land are not dwellings.

Defence Business Services

Kim Johnson: What recent steps his Department has taken to relocate the Defence Business Services from Liverpool to Blackpool.

James Cartlidge: Following the closure of the Intentions Exercise on 31 March, where staff indicated their intent to either relocate or redeploy, staff have either received advanced Risk of Redundancy Letters (in the event that redeployment is not secured) or post relocation notices. The current site in Blackpool has been prepared to receive staff transferring from Liverpool and Cheadle Hulme with the first staff transferring from 5 June over a three-month period.

Ajax Lessons Learned Review

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated timescale is for the publication of the Ajax Lessons Learned Review.

James Cartlidge: In May last year, Clive Sheldon KC was formally appointed to lead the Ajax Lessons Learned Review. Mr Sheldon is in the final stages of drafting his report. The timeframe is a matter for Mr Sheldon. The report will be published as soon as practicable after the final version is received by the Department and a statement will be made to the House.

Armed Forces: Complaints

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many breaches of personal data related to Service Complaints there was in each year since 2016.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The requested information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Ministry of Defence: Ministerial Boxes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.

Dr Andrew Murrison: I can confirm that no ministerial red boxes have been reported missing or lost between 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023 or had their security features removed.

Military Bases: Sales

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department’s Defence Estate Optimisation Timeline 2023, whether (a) Catterick Town Centre Parcel, (b) Harden Barracks, (c) 1300 Parkway, Bristol, (d) RAF Linton-on-Ouse, (e) RAF Scampton, (f) DBS Finance, Liverpool and (g) DBS Cheadle Hulme remain scheduled for disposal in 2023.

James Cartlidge: These sites remain scheduled for closure, if not already closed, in 2023 ahead of their disposal.

Armed Forces: Complaints

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of trends in the proportion of formal Service Complaints made by women in the Armed Forces.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Ministry of Defence commissioned a report following the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces’ request for an independent investigation into the overrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities in the Service complaints system. The 2020 study sought to better understand the reasons behind this overrepresentation and identified the need for targeted improvements for women in career progression, flexible working and issues around facilities/infrastructure. The report included several recommendations, many of which were taken into the Women in the Armed Forces programme of work, such as Service complaints no longer being submitted through the Chain of Command, but instead through single Service Central Admissibility teams. This will mean greater independence and confidence in the system, consistency in approach and swifter decision making.

Defence Council: Staff

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff work on the Defence Council to investigate Service Complaints.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Defence Council is constitutionally responsible for the decisions and appointments made in the Service complaints system, but in practice will delegate the majority of its functions to nominated individuals within each of the single Service complaint secretariats. Before a Service complaint can be considered and a decision made, decision makers are responsible for ensuring an investigation is conducted to establish the facts of the complaint. They may decide to authorise another person to carry out that investigation, but the decision maker retains ownership of the complaint, and it is for them to decide the complaint. While each of the single Services have dedicated teams providing oversight of the Service complaints system, the number of individuals working on Service omplaints varies and is dependent on the volume of Service complaints received.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183243 on Royal Fleet Auxiliary, (a) for how long and (b) for what reason (i) two RFA Wave Class Tankers and (ii) one RFA Tide Class Tanker was not available as of 3 May 2023.

James Cartlidge: The Tide Class Tanker is undergoing routine statutory maintenance and will return to service later this year. RFA WAVE RULER and RFA WAVE KNIGHT were placed in extended readiness in 2017 and 2022 respectively and are expected to remain so until further notice.

Defence and National Security: Finance

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will provide a breakdown of how the additional £5 billion allocated for defence and national security priorities in the Spring Budget 2023 will be spent.

James Cartlidge: The Department will invest £3 billion across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) to support the construction of industrial infrastructure which includes the delivery of AUKUS. £1.95 billion will be invested in improving resilience and readiness, and £50 million will support wider Government security programmes including the new Economic Deterrence Initiative. The Department is working through the outcome of the Spring Budget, and as such it is too early to provide further detail on future years funding allocation.

Veterans: Wind Power

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces veterans have been assisted by (a) Mission Renewable and (b) the Career Transition Partnership to gain qualifications to work in the offshore wind industry to date.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not hold information on the numbers of veterans who have been assisted by the Community Interest Company, Mission Renewable.The current Career Transition Partnership (CTP) contract to deliver Armed Forces' resettlement support to all Regular Service leavers began in October 2015. Since that time, 245 Service leavers have transitioned from the military into the offshore wind industry.This is set to increase significantly with the introduction of the CTP Wind Skills Academy in May 2023 to the CTP Training Programme. In order to meet the demands of industry and to provide Service leavers with the opportunity to meet the criteria for employment in this renewable sector, the CTP Wind Academy courses are directly linked to employment pathways and will provide Service leavers new opportunities and sustained employment within the on and offshore sector and is in support of the MOD's renewable strategy. Bidders for the ongoing CTP commercial relet have also been asked to detail how they will provide support to the UK Green Energy Sector.

Veterans: Wind Power

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many accredited providers of training to the Career Transition Partnership offer the Global Wind Organisation’s Basic Skills Training standard to veterans.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Career Transition Partnership (CTP), as the official provider of Armed Forces' resettlement support to all Regular Service leavers, recently introduced the CTP Wind Skills Academy, offering Service leavers the opportunity to gain industry-recognised qualifications from the Global Wind Organisation (GWO). The Basic Safety Training course (five days) and the Basic Technical Training course (four days) have been brought onto the CTP Contract Funded programme, offering an exceptional opportunity to access training linked to employment in the sector.In addition to the training offered by CTP directly under contract, CTP manages a Preferred Suppliers (PS) list of training providers UK-wide with the aim of supporting those Service leavers and veterans who cannot secure a place on a CTP training course. In relation to the GWO training providers, there are four training providers within the PS list who deliver GWO training (on and offshore) as well as 20 providers delivering engineering training.

Armed Forces: Wind Power

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the level of skills transferability between members of the armed forces and jobs in the offshore wind sector.

Dr Andrew Murrison: Engineers and technicians from the Armed Forces work with some of the world's most advanced defence systems, meaning that Service leavers are often highly sought after by all engineering industries. Specialisms include aeronautical, avionics, electrical, mechanical, nuclear, communications and marine engineering at a wide range of levels. Many of these skills transfer seamlessly into the civilian employment market. However, to help Service leavers specifically align their skills to the offshore wind sector, the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), as the official provider of Armed Forces' resettlement support to all Regular Service leavers, have engaged with Renewables UK and Global Wind Organisation to offer a full programme of vocational training courses to support transition into the offshore wind sector. CTP utilises various research tools and employment outlook surveys to identify emerging trends within the civilian employment market and understands that the growth in offshore wind has already seen a high demand for skilled labour.

Mission Renewable: Finance

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) initial costs and (b) annual budget is for the Community Interest Company Mission Renewable.

Dr Andrew Murrison: This information is not held by the Ministry of Defence.

Veterans: Employment Services

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual cost to the taxpayer is of the partnering agreement between his department and Right Management Ltd for delivery of Career Transition Partnership services for armed forces veterans; and when the current contract expires.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Career Transition Partnership (CTP) is a contracted partnering agreement between the Ministry of Defence and Right Management Ltd. It is the official provider of Armed Forces' resettlement support to all Regular Service leavers, regardless of time served. Over the past 20 years, the CTP has provided transition support to over 250,000 Service leavers across all ranks and single Services, with around 15,000 Service leavers accessing the programme each year.The budget for the CTP contract is around £11 million per annum, but the actual annual cost varies between £9 million and £11 million, depending on the volume of Service leavers. A commercial relet is currently underway to ensure continuity of services from October 2023 when the current contract expires.

Hercules Aircraft

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any RAF C-130 Hercules aircraft have been sold for disposal.

James Cartlidge: Yes. The managed drawdown of the C-130J Hercules fleet has been ongoing since 2017. A number of airframes have already been disposed of to the Bangladesh Air Force, Royal  Bahraini Air Force and United States Navy.

Cabinet Office

Civil Servants: Pay and Workplace Pensions

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants have their (a) payroll and (ii) pensions managed by private limited company Shared Services Connected Ltd; what was the cost to the public purse of using this company in (i) 2020-21 (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23; and whether he plans to take steps to administer the payroll and pensions of all civil servants in-house.

Alex Burghart: The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Capita: Cybercrime

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183317 on Capita: Cybercrime, whether any (a) civilian and (b) military personnel data was affected by the cyber attack.

Jeremy Quin: The Cabinet Office, the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) are working with Capita to understand any risks to government data following the incident in March. Investigations, including client consultation, are ongoing and it would not be appropriate to comment on the detail for security reasons.

King Charles III: Art Works

Dawn Butler: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2023 to Question 181520 on King Charles III: Art Works, which company will (a) take and (b) distribute the portrait to schools.

Alex Burghart: Further details on the producers and/or suppliers associated with the official portrait will be confirmed in due course in coordination with the Royal Household.Those public authorities who are eligible will be offered the opportunity to request one free framed portrait once the scheme is opened later this year, following the taking and release of the official photographic portraits of His Majesty The King.The Government considers it is right that public authorities as part of the fabric of our nation, have the opportunity to commemorate this moment and reflect the new era in our history.

Natural Disasters: Planning

John Howell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on Political strategies to prevent, prepare for, and face the consequences of natural disasters, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 26 April 2023.

Jeremy Quin: Government departments stand ready to respond to natural hazard risks. The Resilience Directorate and the COBR Unit in the Cabinet Office work across Government, including with the Government Office for Science, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, the UK Health Security Agency , the Meteorological Office and private sector organisations, to assess the risk of natural hazards, build resilience and develop response plans to respond effectively should hazards occur. The Government is committed to tackling risks and vulnerabilities. The UK Government Resilience Framework, published in December 2022, is the first articulation of our new strategic approach to resilience. The Framework is a risk-agnostic plan to strengthen the systems, structures, and capabilities which underpin the UK’s resilience to all risks, including those which are yet to emerge.

Cabinet Office: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department has spent on radio adverts in the last five years broken down by radio station.

Alex Burghart: The Government is strongly supportive of the radio sector and recognises the great value that it offers to communities across the UK. Radio plays an important role in our cross channel strategy, with the merits of its use being assessed in relation to this.Government public information campaigns utilise a wide range of channels to maximise reach and engagement and to ensure our messaging reaches as many people as possible.The Cabinet Office has spent a total of £58,547,372 on radio advertisement in the last 5 years, covering large scale cross-Government campaigns such as UK Transition, Covid-19 and Help for Households.

Prime Minister: Travel

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse was of prime ministerial travel by helicopter within the United Kingdom since 25 October 2022.

Jeremy Quin: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to her question of 16 January 2023, Official Report, PQ120061.

Alcoholism and Obesity: Death

Geraint Davies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answers of 24 April 2023 to Questions 181813 and 181814, what estimate he has made of when the UK Statistics Authority will publish that information for 2022.

Jeremy Quin: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon Gentlemen’s Parliamentary Question of 2 May is attached. UK Statistics Authority (pdf, 106.3KB)

Cardiovascular Diseases: Death

Geraint Davies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths there were from cardiovascular causes in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (j) England in each year since 2017 for which figures are available.

Jeremy Quin: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon Gentlemen’s Parliamentary Question of 2 May is attached. UK Statistics Authority (pdf, 136.5KB)

Department for Education

Department for Education: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department has assessed the potential implications, for staff in the department, of the 2017 Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Others for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement and is compliant.

Students: Finance

Naz Shah: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to introduce an alternative student finance product for Muslim students.

Robert Halfon: I refer the hon. Member for Bradford West to the answer of 24 March 2023 to Question 167263.

Environment Protection: Technology

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to provide specific (a) educational opportunities and (b) training programmes to help the oil and gas workforce make the transition to work in green technologies.

Robert Halfon: The department has a range of existing skills and training offers that can support workers looking to transition between oil and gas, and other offshore energy sectors.​Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks that give adults the opportunity to build sector-specific skills and access an interview. This can meet the needs of existing workers looking to upskill, as well as new entrants to a sector. Courses are available in energy skills, including offshore renewables and wind turbine blade repair.​Apprenticeships are available in a range of occupational standards and can give employers and employees the skills they need to grow. The apprenticeships offer includes training in a huge range of disciplines, from logistics and project management to engineering and manufacturing. Flexibilities within apprenticeships include accelerated apprenticeships, which support those with existing industry experience to complete more quickly by recognising their prior leaning. This would suit people looking to move between sectors with transferable skills. Training is available for a range of engineering occupations crucial to the offshore energy sector including level 7 system integration engineer, level 3 plate welder, and level 4 asset manager.In March 2021, The North Sea Transition Deal commited to supporting up to 40,000 direct and indirect supply chain jobs in decarbonising UK Continental Shelf jobs, and in Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and Hydrogen. In May 2022, the government tasked offshore energy skills organisation, OPITO with developing an Integrated People and Skills Strategy. This work is complimented by the October 2021 Net Zero Strategy which commits the UK to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Green Jobs Delivery Group is also covering the oil and gas industry in its detailed work on workforce and skills. The Group will be publishing a Net Zero and Nature Workforce and Skills Action Plan in the first half of 2024.​According to the Integrated People and Skills Strategy, there are approximately 118,400 workers in oil and gas, and 148,500 in offshore energy overall. The Strategy forecasts offshore energy sector jobs increasing to 350,000 by 2050. It estimates 90% of the existing UK oil and gas workforce has skills transferable to other offshore energy sectors. Additionally, it states over half of the oil and gas workforce would consider moving into renewable energy jobs, provided they were supported with the right training. The Strategy commits to developing transition pathways to support offshore energy workers open to moving between sectors. This includes integration with the Armed Forces Covenant.​A digital skills passport is in development that allows people working in offshore energy to be occupationally competent across oil and gas, CCUS, Hydrogen, and offshore wind. According to the Green Jobs Taskforce report, published in July 2021, approximately 50%, or 100,000, of the UK’s offshore energy jobs by 2030 are predicted to be filled by workers transferring from oil and gas to offshore renewable roles, as well as new entrants from outside the sector. ​

Students: Health Services and Safety

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps the Government has taken to improve and increase support for student's (a) mental health, (b) safety and (c) well-being.

Robert Halfon: The mental health and wellbeing of young people is a high priority for the government. It is crucial that students get the effective mental health and wellbeing support they need to allow them to flourish at university.The department is working closely with mental health charities and the higher education (HE) sector to promote and fund effective practice to support student wellbeing and mental health.To ensure that the sector goes further to support students, the department has made clear the ambition for all HE providers to sign up to Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter by 2026 and adopt a whole-university approach to mental health and wellbeing. The charter can be found here: https://www.studentminds.org.uk/charter.html.Students need timely and effective health support and a smooth transition into university life. The Office for Students (OfS) has allocated £15 million of funding in 2022/23 to establish better partnerships between universities and local NHS services and to support transitions from school and college to university.The department also wants students across the country to have easy access to the best mental health support tools and for interventions to be based on evidence base practice. The OfS have funded the online platform, Student Space, and are leading work to establish and share ‘what works’ across the sector. Student Space can be accessed at: https://studentspace.org.uk/.Through the NHS Long Term Plan, the government is investing an additional £2.3 billion a year at least into mental health services by 2023/24. Part of this increased investment will enable an additional 345,000 children and young people aged 0-25 to get the mental health support they need.The number of children and young people aged under 18 supported through NHS-funded mental health assistance, with at least one contact with services was 689,621 in the year up to July 2022, compared to 618,537 in the year up to July 2021.Spend for children and young people’s mental health services has increased from £841 million in 2019/20 to £995 million in 2021/22. Total spend for 2022/23 has yet to be confirmed, but we expect it to have risen to around £1.1 billion.

Foster Care

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of processes for investigating allegations made against foster carers; and what right of access foster carers have to information on allegations made against them.

Claire Coutinho: The National Minimum Standards (NMS) are clear that allegations should be handled fairly, quickly, and consistently in a way that provides effective protection for the child and at the same time supports the person who is the subject of the allegation.The NMS are clear that fostering service providers should provide foster carers with written guidance that sets out how they will be supported during an investigation, including the payment of allowance and any fees to foster carers while investigations are ongoing. The NMS also makes clear the duty of the fostering service provider to make available a person, independent of the service provider, who can offer information, advice, emotional support and, where needed, mediation and/or advocacy.Foster carers should be given appropriate information about any allegation made against them and the reasons for an unplanned removal of a child. As soon as the investigation is concluded a comprehensive summary of any allegations should be given to the person that has been subject to the allegation. This summary will be held confidentially by the organisation until the person reaches retirement age, or for ten years if this is longer.

Children: Neurodiversity

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that data on the number of children with neuro-diversity is reflected in (a) national policy development, (b) local funding allocations and (c) operational guidance for local outreach services.

Claire Coutinho: The department has multiple data collections related to pupils and students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) published on GOV.UK at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/. The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper consultation and subsequent Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, are underpinned by this data and wider evidence.The Dedicated Schools Grant is intended to meet the educational costs of pupils in primary and secondary education, as well as the educational costs of special educational provision for children and young people with SEND in post-16 provision, including those aged over 19 and up to 25 who have an Education, Health and Care plan. This is set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2022-to-2023/high-needs-funding-2022-to-2023-operational-guidance.The department committed in the SEND and AP Improvement Plan to publish local and national inclusion dashboards from autumn 2023, which will present performance data across education, health and care, covering the full system from ages 0-25.We also committed to introducing new local SEND and AP partnerships, who will be expected to create evidence-based local inclusion plans, drawing on the new dashboards, to set out how the needs of children and young people in the local area will be met in line with new national SEND and AP standards.

Pre-school Education: Disadvantaged

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has taken recent steps to increase the number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds who have access to early years education settings.

Claire Coutinho: Education is a devolved matter. This response outlines the information for England only.Two-year-olds from disadvantaged families can access 15 hours of free early education. This includes low-income households, looked-after children, and children with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. The aim of the entitlement is to support children’s early development. The eligibility criteria target those children that are the least likely to attend, but who evidence shows are most likely to benefit. As of January 2022, 72% of eligible families were taking up their free place.In addition to this, 92% of three and four-year-olds are accessing the universal entitlement. This offers 15 hours free early education to all three and four-year-olds to support them to prepare for school.The department works closely with local authorities to support them to engage parents and understand barriers preventing parents from accessing their place.

Mental Health Services

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the potential merits of providing combined health and social care placements for people with significant mental health challenges.

Claire Coutinho: The department is responsible for policy related children’s social care, which is the focus of this answer.The department is working with our health partners across government, including the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England, and key stakeholders, such as the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and the Local Government Association, to consider how we can better work together to deliver children’s social care and health services for children with the most complex needs, including those with significant mental health challenges.A Task and Finish Group will examine the barriers to commissioning and providing joint care and health provision, and how to support the sector to better this deliver in future. This will be achieved through implementing the recommendations in ‘Stable Homes Built on Love’, the government’s strategy for transforming children’s social care, and building on other ongoing programmes, such as the NHS Long Term Plan.The department works closely with health partners across government to deliver integrated care and health services for children with complex mental health needs placed in secure children’s homes. These homes provide specialist care in a secure environment for vulnerable children and young people who have either been remanded or sentenced by the courts, or detained for their own welfare or to ensure the safety of others. We are supporting the delivery of NHS England’s programme of the Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS), which is a care framework that addresses the needs of children and young people in secure children’s homes. This programme has been developed to ensure that staff have the right skills to care for children and young people appropriately and to provide training to support young people’s complex mental health needs.

Free School Meals

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the value for money of providing (a) food through the the Holiday Activity and Food Programme, (b) a daily free meal voucher and (c) a cash equivalent for young people who qualify for free school meals.

Claire Coutinho: The department’s £200 million per year funding to the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme provides vital support to children and families during the longer school holidays. The benefits for children who attend stretch far beyond the provision of meal vouchers or cash payments.The HAF Programme enables attendees to receive healthy and nutritious meals and take part in fun, engaging activities to stay physically active. The Programme also provides the opportunity to increase attendees’ understanding of food, nutrition and other health-related issues, along with making new friends. The Programme reached more than 600,000 children last summer.Free School Meals (FSM) is an educational entitlement and is intended to support children in term time while they are learning. Pupils do not receive FSM during the school holidays, whether through daily free meal vouchers or a cash equivalent.For those who require extra support, the government is providing an additional £1 billion of funding on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding to £2.5 billion. In England this will be delivered through an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £842 million, running from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, which local authorities use to help households with the cost of essentials.

Fraud: Social Services

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has taken steps to make false or malicious reports to social services a criminal offence.

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made on the number of false or malicious reports to social services since May 2022.

Claire Coutinho: The government considers any malicious reporting and false claims made to children’s social care as completely unacceptable. It is a cruel practice, a terrible ordeal for the families affected, and can distract services from undertaking vital child protection work.However, it is right that people should remain able to flag concerns about children they believe to be vulnerable, and that social services fulfil their duty to treat each safeguarding case seriously and to undertake enquiries if they believe a child has suffered or is likely to suffer harm. Therefore government is not currently looking to make false or malicious reports to social services a criminal offence.The information requested on the number of false or malicious reports to social services is not held by the department.

Schools: Food

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February to Question 148811 on School Meals: Nutrition, what recent progress she has made on the review of School Food Standards.

Nick Gibb: The current School Food Standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure pupils in England continue to receive high quality and nutritious food. The Department continues to keep the School Food Standards under review.

Horticulture: Curriculum

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to include (a) horticulture and (b) gardening in the national curriculum.

Nick Gibb: In the Schools White Paper, published in 2022, the Department committed to make no further changes to the National Curriculum for the remainder of this Parliament.The National Curriculum is a framework which sets out the content that schools are expected to cover in each curriculum subject. Teachers are expected to use their own knowledge and expertise to determine how they teach their pupils the content of the curriculum, tailoring their lessons to the individual needs of the pupils.   Whilst not mentioned as standalone topics, schools have the freedom and flexibility to teach horticulture and gardening. For example, in science pupils are taught about plants and living things and their habitats.In citizenship, a compulsory part of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4, pupils undertake school and community based volunteering. Young people are encouraged to tackle local issues in their communities. This could include activities related to the environment and nature, such as community gardening.Many schools offer enrichment activities, including gardening, to promote an understanding of nature, nutrition and wellbeing among pupils. The Department recognises the significant benefits that extracurricular activities at out of school settings, such as gardening clubs, can have for children’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as their educational and social development.The Department is developing draft subject content for a new GCSE in natural history, to be taught from 2025, which will include opportunities for students to gain a deeper knowledge of the natural world around them.For post 16 students, the Department is introducing employer designed T Levels in Agriculture, Land Management and Production from September this year. This course gives students the opportunity to specialise in ornamental horticulture and landscaping.

Religion: Education

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of Religious Education on addressing racial or religious prejudice in schools; and whether she has had recent discussions on improving standards of Religious Education teaching with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Nick Gibb: The Government recognises the importance of providing good quality religious education (RE) for pupils. RE remains a compulsory subject for all state-funded schools in England, including academies, for all pupils up to the age of 18.The Government’s policy is to allow RE curricula to be designed at a local level, whether that is through a locally agreed syllabus or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curricula. The Department does not quality assure, approve, endorse or promote locally agreed syllabuses for RE or any associated resources and materials. The Department has therefore made no formal assessment of the potential impact of RE on addressing racial or religious prejudice in schools.Whilst RE seeks to educate young people on the importance of tolerance and acceptance of those of all faiths and beliefs, it is not the only subject within a school’s curriculum that does so. For example, all schools have a duty to promote fundamental British values, which includes mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.Developing and deepening pupils’ understanding of these values is part of the Ofsted inspection framework, alongside expectations that schools develop responsible citizens and promote an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all pupils, irrespective of their characteristics.The Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum has a strong focus on equality, respect and the harmful impact of stereotyping, as well as the importance of valuing difference. Guidance can be found at: www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-about-relationships-sex-and-health.Schools should address any intolerant, racist or discriminatory views expressed by pupils through their wider anti bullying and safeguarding policies. All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour and prevent all forms of bullying amongst pupils. The policy should set out the behaviour expected of pupils, the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour and recognition for good behaviour. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents. The Department’s advice for schools, which outlines schools’ responsibilities, is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.​The Department publishes information, guidance and support for teachers and school leaders on how to challenge radical views, including racist and discriminatory beliefs, on the ‘Educate Against Hate’ website. These resources include the Respectful School Communities toolkit, a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole school approach which promotes respect and discipline. This can help to combat bullying, harassment and prejudice of any kind, including hate based bullying. The toolkit is available at: www.educateagainsthate.com/school-leaders/?filter=guidance-and-training-school-leaders .​The Department is also providing over £3 million of funding between August 2021 and March 2024 to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. The Department has deliberately focused this grant programme on preventing and tackling bullying of pupils with protected characteristics. This includes projects targeting the bullying of particular vulnerable groups, such as those who are victims of hate related bullying.The Department is not aware of any discussions with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on improving standards of RE teaching.

Sex and Relationship Education

Nick Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the terms of reference and review team for the review into Relationship and Sex Education in Schools.

Nick Gibb: The Department is in the process of appointing the members of an independent expert panel to inform the wider review of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education statutory guidance. The Department expects the process to be completed shortly and will then make public more details of the panel and their work.

Free School Meals: Disability

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180692 on Free School Meals: Disability, if she will make an assessment of (a) the potential implications for her policies of the research by Contact entitled Free School Meals survey results, published in April 2023, on the number of eligible disabled children who do not receive free school meals and (b) whether schools are taking adequate steps to ensure that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary and cultural needs.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will issue guidance to (a) schools and (b) local authorities on making reasonable adjustments when providing Free School Meals for eligible disabled children who (i) have medical or sensory needs and (ii) are unable to attend school due to long term medical reasons and are receiving education elsewhere.

Nick Gibb: Schools have a duty to provide nutritious, free meals to pupils who meet the eligibility criteria, including being a registered pupil of a state funded school. Free school meal (FSM) provision should be made to eligible pupils either on the school premises or at any other place where education is being provided. The Department expects schools to act reasonably in ensuring that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary and cultural needs and has published statutory guidance, which describes steps school may take, including the establishment of individual healthcare plans which may include special diets. The statutory guidance is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803956/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions.pdf#:~:text=On%201%20September%202014%20a%20new%20duty%20came,life%2C%20remain%20healthy%20and%20achieve%20their%20academic%20potential.Local Authorities are funded to support children with special needs, including those who are unable to attend school on a long term basis. The Department’s published guidance on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/illness-child-education.The Department does not plan to expand FSM to include pupils who are home, or privately educated. The Department will continue to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.

Education: Finance

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department assesses the adequacy of local delivery plans for priority education investment areas as part of the allocation process for local needs funding.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether local delivery plans for priority education investment areas are required to include projects specifically to help deliver services for young people with special educational needs and disability.

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure value for money from the funding provided to priority education investment areas for local delivery plans.

Nick Gibb: The Department has established 24 Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIA) with funding for improvements to attainment at Key Stages 2 and 4.Departmental Regional Directors have led the creation of delivery plans, following a detailed diagnosis of need for each PEIA. These plans are informed by Local Partnership Boards to ensure effective identification and prioritisation of areas for improvement.To ensure value for money and delivery of improvement aims, funding will be provided for evidence based programmes and activities, and approaches approved by the Department.The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan sets out the Department’s next steps to deliver an improved experience for all children and young people with SEND and their families. The plan is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139561/SEND_and_alternative_provision_improvement_plan.pdf.

Treasury

Infected Blood Compensation Framework Study and Infected Blood Inquiry

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list (a) dates and (b) attendees of his Department's meetings on the infected blood (i) inquiry and (ii) compensation framework since January 1st 2023.

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimates his department has made of the cost to the public purse of the compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal.

John Glen: As the Minister for the Cabinet Office set out in his statement of 19 April, the Government welcome the publication of the infected blood inquiry’s second interim report, and is considering its recommendations carefully. HM Treasury officials are working closely with colleagues in the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health and Social Care, among others, who are leading on the consideration and analysis of the recommendations. As the Minister for the Cabinet Office set out in his answer to your question of 20 April, Ministers and officials at all levels meet regularly to discuss this issue. My officials and I are involved in those discussions, and will continue to be so.

Treasury: Holiday Leave

Chris Stephens: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.

Victoria Atkins: The 2017 employment tribunal decision determined that holiday pay must be calculated based on regular earnings, which must include regular overtime and similar payments. This means that since 2017, most HMRC colleagues who earn overtime and similar payments regularly in line with our guidance have received the additional payment due when they take their statutory annual leave. HMRC has not determined that there are other implications of the ruling.

Visas: Overseas Students

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of student visas issued by the Home Department on the economy.

John Glen: Assessments are made when there are policy changes. An Impact Assessment was produced at the time the Student Route was opened by the Home Office, and it assesses the potential impacts (costs and benefits) of the policy, including the fiscal impact to the Exchequer. The Student Route Impact Assessment is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/916601/IA_-_students.pdf However, the HM Treasury and the Home Office continue to work closely together in monitoring the performance of visa routes.

Bicycles: Tax Allowances

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing tax relief on the (a) purchasing and (b) servicing of bicycles.

Victoria Atkins: Tax relief on bicycles is already available through the Cycle to Work scheme, which was introduced in 1999 to promote cycling with the purpose of encouraging healthier journeys to work and reducing environmental pollution by encouraging new cyclists to commute to work by bicycle.The self-employed can in some circumstances claim expenses relating to a bicycle to obtain tax relief.

Visas: Graduates

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the fiscal impact of the Graduate visa on the UK economy.

John Glen: The Graduate Route was launched on 1 July 2021. It allows international students to stay in the UK for two years (or three years with a PhD or other doctoral qualification) after successfully completing a course in the UK. An Impact Assessment was produced at the time by the Home Office, and it assesses the potential impacts (costs and benefits) of the policy, including the fiscal impact to the Exchequer. The Graduate Route Impact Assessment is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966659/Graduate_Route_Impact_Assessment.pdf HM Treasury and the Home Office continue to work closely together in monitoring evaluating the performance of visa routes.

High Income Child Benefit Tax Charge

Martyn Day: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing a person to transfer a proportion of the £50,000 earnings threshold to their partner whose individual income exceeds the threshold for the High Income Child Benefit Charge.

John Glen: The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) is a tax charge which was introduced in 2013 for recipients of Child Benefit payments on higher incomes. The HICBC applies to Child Benefit recipients who have, or whose partner has, an adjusted net income of £50,000. The UK has a system of independent taxation where every individual, including each partner in a couple, is treated equally within the income tax system and has their own personal allowance and set of rate bands which they can set against their own income. It is a fundamental principle of independent taxation that the individual incomes are taxed separately, and this ensures independence and privacy in their tax affairs. Allowing transfers of income between partners would run counter to this principle.

Credit Unions

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number of credit unions operating in the UK in each year since 2010.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number of registered co-operatives that operated in the UK in each year since 2010.

Andrew Griffith: Annual statistics on credit unions in the UK are publicly available from the Bank of England website. Details of registered co-operative societies and the years they are or have been active can be accessed from the Mutuals Public Register. Additionally, the latest Co-op Economy Report reveals that the number of independent co-operatives in the UK grew by 1.2% in 2020, despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. There are now over 7,000 independent co-operatives, with more than 250,000 employees and nearly 14 million UK co-operative members. These co-operatives contributed £39.7 billion to the UK economy in 2021, up by £1.1 billion from 2020.

Leasehold

Rosie Duffield: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on financial support for non-qualifying leaseholders.

John Glen: In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed. The Chancellor and his officials are in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and his officials on a range of issues.

Levelling Up Fund

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department plans to provide funding to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to enable Levelling Up Fund Round 3.

John Glen: As confirmed at Spring Budget, round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund will proceed as planned with a further £1 billion to invest in places. Funding will be released from HM Treasury to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department for Transport after the places and projects receiving funding are confirmed. Work is underway to design round 3, and further detail will be provided in due course.

Tax Avoidance

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of carrying out a new review of the Loan Charge.

Victoria Atkins: The 2019 Independent Loan Charge Review drew upon all the available evidence and expert advice to consider the appropriateness of the Loan Charge, and its impact on individuals, reflecting the main concerns that had been raised by MPs and campaigners. The Government accepted all but one of the twenty recommendations in the review.There are no plans for a further independent review.

Doors and Windows: VAT

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to reduce the 20 per cent VAT tax rate which applies to thermally-efficient windows and doors.

Victoria Atkins: The installation of qualifying energy saving materials (ESMs) in residential accommodation benefits from a temporary VAT zero rate. This support is worth around £915 million over the next four years which will help households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and reduce carbon emissions. At Spring Budget 2023, the Government published a call for evidence seeking views on potential areas for reform to the VAT relief for the installation of ESMs, including the inclusion of additional technologies within the scope of the relief. As set out in the call for evidence, proposals for further reforms will be assessed against the objectives for the relief, including whether the primary purpose of a technology is to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, along with an evaluation of the cost effectiveness of the reform and whether a change generates wider risks to the tax system. The call for evidence, which is open until 31 May 2023, can be accessed on the GOV.UK website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/vat-energy-saving-materials-relief-improving-energy-efficiency-and-reducing-carbon-emissions/call-for-evidence-vat-energy-saving-materials-relief-improving-energy-efficiency-and-reducing-carbon-emissions.

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice: Corporate Governance

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department's Board met in the 2021-22 financial year.

Mike Freer: The Departmental Board met on 10 June 2021 and 22 November 2021 during the 2021-2022 financial year, ended 31 March 2022.

Civil Proceedings: Neurodiversity

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help neurodiverse people navigate civil proceedings; and what allowance for neurodiversity is made when considering the need for legal aid in such cases.

Mike Freer: His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) provide reasonable adjustments to help neurodiverse people navigate the courts and tribunal systems.for court and tribunal users and take steps to avoid treating people less favourably because of their conditions. Court and tribunal users are encouraged to get in touch with HMCTS to discuss any particular adjustments or support they require, to enable their individual needs to be met. Rules of court made pursuant to the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 also allow vulnerable parties whose participation in the litigation would be diminished (due to their vulnerability) to apply for special measures. Special measures are a series of provisions that help vulnerable witnesses give their best evidence and help relieve some of the stress for example giving evidence from behind a screen, use of an intermediary or the use of video links. All applications for legal aid in connection with civil legal aid services are determined in accordance with the provisions of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, regulations made under the Act and the Lord Chancellor’s Guidance Under Section 4 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Parole: Standards

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) in how many cases have parole board decisions been successfully challenged and (b) what the total financial cost was of paying compensation in those cases, in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.

Damian Hinds: Public protection is our top priority and it is absolutely right that parties are able to exercise their right to ask the Parole Board to reconsider a decision if there is evidence the process has been followed incorrectly or that the decision is irrational. The Parole Board introduced its reconsideration mechanism in 2019 whereby the Secretary of State or the prisoner can apply for a parole decision to be looked at again by the Parole Board if they have reasons to show the decision is procedurally unfair, irrational or contained an error of law. Since the commencement of the reconsideration mechanism, 153 cases have been challenged and received a new hearing for a panel to reconsider a prisoner’s application for parole out of 774 applications. The data requested on the number of reconsiderations that were successfully challenged and led to a different outcome is not available. The financial cost data you have requested regarding compensation payments where prisoners have challenged a decision is not available in the format requested.

Prisons: Pepper Spray

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180189 on Prisons: Pepper Spray, if his Department has guidance on the circumstances where it would be inappropriate to apply the explain or reform principle.

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180189 on Prisons: Pepper Spray, if he will publish the equality impact assessment on the pilot of the rollout of PAVA spray; and whether his Department has made any subsequent equality impact assessments on the national rollout of PAVA spray.

Damian Hinds: There are no circumstances where it would be inappropriate to apply the explain or reform principles as recommended by the Lammy Review.The equality impact assessment on the pilot for PAVA spray was published following legal challenge to the roll out. The Department committed to make a number of changes to the rollout. This included providing more robust guidance and training for prison officers using PAVA, monitoring the use of PAVA across the country, and involving prison race and equality liaison officers in reviews of the use of force in prisons.

Community Orders

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court applications his Department made to extend supervision due to unfulfilled community sentence unpaid work in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014.

Damian Hinds: We do not hold the data for the years 2012 and 2013 when Unpaid Work was delivered by Probation Trusts. The data for 2014 can only be provided at disproportionate cost, due to the time and resource that would be needed to search each service record.

Community Orders

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court applications his Department made to extend supervision due to unfulfilled community sentence unpaid work in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.

Damian Hinds: The data for the years 2015-2017 can only be provided at disproportionate cost, due to the time and resource that would be needed to search each service record.

Community Orders

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court applications his Department made to extend supervision due to unfilled community sentence unpaid work in (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.

Damian Hinds: The data for the years 2018-2020 can only be provided at disproportionate cost, due to the time and resource that would be needed to search each service record.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

UK Special Representative for Climate Change: Public Appointments

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, for what reasons his Department has not appointed a Special Representative for Climate Change.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: Whilst an immediate successor to the Special Representative has not been appointed, our resource and senior representation within the FCDO on climate and environment has grown significantly in recent years. Climate change remains an area of utmost importance to this government, and to the Foreign Secretary.

Climate Change: Finance

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he will take to ensure that funding provided to the Loss and Damage Finance Facility is additional to existing climate finance commitments.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: At COP27, the UK and all parties agreed to establish new funding arrangements for loss and damage, including the setup of a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. It was agreed to establish a Transitional Committee (TC) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to develop the fund and funding arrangements by COP28. The UK is one of the twenty-four members of the TC and has actively engaged with its work, attending the first formal meeting in Egypt in March and associated workshops. We are committed to making a positive contribution to the aims and objectives of the Committee in the run up to COP28.

Developing Countries: Coffee

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support he is providing to help coffee farmers in the Global South shift to methods of production which are sustainable and resilient to climate-induced shocks.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The UK is delivering programmes to help farmers in the most climate vulnerable countries adapt and build resilience to climate change. For example, the UK-funded Partnerships for Forests programme supports coffee farmers in East Africa to adopt sustainable, climate-resilient practices beneficial for people, climate and nature. The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholder and Agribusiness (CASA) programme enables some 15,000 smallholder farmers in Tanzania to access markets for sustainably grown coffee. With UK support, the global agriculture research organisation CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) is developing technologies and tools to help farmers deal with climate change impacts on coffee. The UK's Just Rural Transition programme helps developing countries to take policy measures designed to enable farmers and rural communities to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.

Natural Disasters: Children

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to include understanding of vulnerabilities and needs of children to (a) extreme weather events, (b) extreme temperatures and (c) other environmental risks into its approach to climate heating adaptation and disaster resilience.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: Addressing climate risks for the most vulnerable, including children, and considering gender, equality and social inclusion are integral to our work and to just and sustainable climate action. This includes our funding to action-oriented research under the Climate Adaptation and Resilience research programme (CLARE), which links up short and long-term issues, providing a better understanding of the risks associated with climate, supporting early action to reduce climate impacts whilst enabling long-term, sustainable and equitable economic and social development in a changing climate.

Hong Kong: Pension Funds

Samantha Dixon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his department is taking to ensure that British National (overseas) Visa holders from Hong Kong are able to access their money from the Mandatory Provident Fund of Hong Kong.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: We are aware of the difficulties BN(O)s (British National (Overseas)) are experiencing in seeking early withdrawal of their pension held by the Mandatory Provident Fund in Hong Kong. The root of the problem is the Chinese Government's decision not to recognise the BN(O) passport. The UK firmly opposes the discrimination of BN(O)s in this way. We have urged the Hong Kong authorities to facilitate the early drawdown of funds as is the case for other Hong Kong residents who move overseas permanently. I raised this issue with Christopher Hui, Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury on 18 April and pressed for a pragmatic solution.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what costs the Government has incurred in providing accommodation in (a) Pakistan, (b) Iran, (c) Turkey and (d) other countries for people eligible for relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.

Leo Docherty: The total cost HMG has incurred in providing accommodation to ARAP-eligible individuals in third countries between January 2022 to March 2023 is as follows:Pakistan: approximately £15.4 million.Iran: approximately £240,000.Turkey: approximately £80,000.Other countries: approximately £20,000.

San Marino: Council of Europe

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on The honouring of membership obligations to the Council of Europe by San Marino, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 28 April 2023.

Leo Docherty: We greatly value the work of the UK delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and welcome this debate, following the monitoring committee's report. The UK thanks San Marino for the work they are doing to comply with all of their obligations. We will continue to engage with San Marino, to promote our shared values.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what safeguarding measures are in place to protect children eligible for relocation to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy who are currently staying in Government-funded temporary accommodation in (a) Pakistan and (b) other countries.

Leo Docherty: Caseworkers in Islamabad support eligible people in HMG-funded accommodation in Pakistan. This includes regular welfare checks. A mixture of MOD and FCDO staff provide support in other third countries. Any safeguarding incidents are dealt with by these teams as they arise. MOD staff maintain contact with eligible people who are in Afghanistan.

Montenegro: Elections

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on Progress report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee and Observation of the presidential election in Montenegro, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 24 April 2023.

Leo Docherty: The UK welcomes the Council of Europe's (CoE) Parliamentary Assembly debate on the Presidential elections in Montenegro. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) observer mission, to which the UK government contributed, concluded the elections overall to be "competitive and well-run".The UK government supported a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) to provide election monitoring, reporting of irregularities and broadcast of an early results forecast. The UK will continue to support Montenegro to conduct free and fair democratic processes, including during Parliamentary elections scheduled in June and to encourage Montenegro to strengthen electoral practices in line with ODIHR and CoE recommendations.

Council of Europe: Democracy

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on Assessing the functioning of the partnership for democracy, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 25 April 2023.

Leo Docherty: The UK has followed the resolution which was approved at the Parliamentary Assembly at the Council of Europe on 25 April 2023 and supports the re-evaluation of the Partnership for Democracy which came into place in 2010. Democracy, human rights and the rule of law are important values, which the UK strives to uphold domestically and promote internationally. Platforms such as the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly are vital in this area.

Moldova: Russia

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on Russia’s role in escalating tensions in the Republic of Moldova, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 27 April 2023.

Leo Docherty: We were aware of the debate in April and were pleased that the Parliamentary Assembly considered this important issue. The UK resolutely supports Moldova in the face of Russian aggression and disinformation. On 16 March, the Foreign Secretary met Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu in Chisinau. He reiterated the UK's steadfast support for sovereign Moldova as it pursues a path of freedom and independence. He also committed a further £10 million of support towards economic and governance reforms. This is in addition to £12 million over three years pledged in 2022 to build a stronger, more resilient Moldova, through our work on anti-corruption, counter-disinformation and reform. On 9 December 2022, the UK sanctioned two Moldovans, Mr Ilan Shor and Mr Vladimir Plahotniuc under its Global Anti-Corruption regime.

Yemen: Humanitarian Aid

Kim Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional funding for (a) child protection and (b) other projects through the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.

Leo Docherty: In February, the Minister for Europe, Leo Docherty, stated that the UK will pledge up to £88 million in aid to Yemen over the 2023/24 financial year. This will feed at least 100,000 Yemeni people every month, provide lifesaving health care and nutrition services through 400 health care facilities and treat 22,000 severely malnourished children. The inaugural UK-Saudi Arabia Aid Dialogue in February identified the need to improve humanitarian access and encourage greater funding commitments by regional partners. On 23 February, Minister Mitchell launched the BRIGHTLY consortium, a government-NGO partnership to deliver the UK's flagship food security programme in Yemen.

Media: Young People

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for her policies of the debate on Youth and the Media, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 28 April 2023.

Leo Docherty: The UK thanks the Parliamentary Assembly to the Council of Europe for bringing this topic into focus. The UK is a strong protector of children online and through passage of our Online Safety Bill, we will become one of the safest places to be a child online. We are continually taking steps to empower users of all ages to make safer and well-informed choices online through resources such as the UK Government's Online Media Literacy programmes and our yearly action plans.

Yemen: Humanitarian Aid

Kim Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help tackle (a) requirements that ban women from travelling without male authorisation and (b) other barriers to humanitarian access in Yemen.

Leo Docherty: Yemen is a human rights priority country for the UK. We call upon all parties to the conflict to comply with their obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law. We are discussing with international partners the potential for a mechanism to support human rights accountability, including women's rights, in Yemen. We continue to work with donors, the UN and NGOs to lobby for the lifting of worsening access restrictions to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those who need it most in Yemen. If access restrictions are not lifted, the international community, UN agencies and NGOs, will be forced to take further measures to better protect aid delivery, including recalibrating humanitarian assistance and further reducing certain operations.

Abu Hussein al-Qurashi

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports that Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, the Daesh leader in North Syria, has been assassinated by Turkish forces.

Leo Docherty: It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments that we do not comment on intelligence matters.We continue to work with our international partners, notably through the Global Coalition Against Daesh, to tackle the insurgencies in Iraq and Syria, prevent Daesh's resurgence and further degrade its network. We continue to monitor developments in the region very closely.

Climate Change

Deidre Brock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many staff working on climate and environment in his Department have been employed at Senior Civil Service grade in each year since 2020.

Leo Docherty: The information on staff at Senior Civil Service (SCS) grades working on climate and environment across the FCDO network is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.However, climate change remains an area of utmost importance to this government and to the Foreign Secretary. Our resourcing and senior representation within the FCDO on climate and environment has grown significantly in recent years. We have many SCS across the FCDO who work on these issues either full time or as a key part of their portfolio.

Ukraine: Abduction

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the debate on Deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to Russian Federation or to Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied: create conditions for their safe return, stop these crimes and punish the perpetrators, which took place at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 27 April 2023.

Leo Docherty: The UK condemns Russia's forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine. Those responsible for atrocities must be held to account and the UK is supporting the investigations of both the Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The arrest warrants issued by the ICC are an important step towards accountability.We respect the jurisdiction of competent national or international courts, such as the ICC, to determine if the crime of genocide has occurred in Ukraine. We will continue to call on Russia to cease forced transfers, allow unhindered, immediate and safe access for humanitarian organisations, and facilitate the safe return of children to Ukraine, in line with Russia's obligations under international law. The UK has contributed 150,000 euros to the Council of Europe's new Ukraine Action Plan.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Corporate Governance

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when his Department's Board met in the 2021-22 financial year.

Leo Docherty: Information on the FCDO's top-level governance structures in the 2021-22 financial year, including membership, regularity of meetings and issues covered, can be found in the 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1095304/FCDO_Annual_Report_2021_2022_Accessible_290722.pdf

Brazil: Diplomatic Service

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many full time equivalent staff (a) make up a full compliment of staff at the British Embassy in Brazil and (b) occupy a role primarily focussed on business relationships and trade at that Embassy.

Leo Docherty: In March 2023, the headcount number of FCDO staff working at the British Embassy Brasilia was 10-19 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) UK-based staff and 100-119 FTE country-based staff. These figures do not include staff working at the Embassy employed by the Department of Business and Trade, other government departments or devolved administrations.

Armenia: Azerbaijan

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to help promote peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Leo Docherty: The UK's longstanding position is that there is no military solution to this conflict and that Armenia and Azerbaijan must engage in substantive negotiations, without preconditions, to secure a sustainable peaceful settlement. I underlined this message when I visited Baku in February, and the UK Government will continue to support constructive dialogue in further contacts with the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments in the coming months. We continue to support internationally facilitated negotiations to settle all outstanding matters.

Pakistan: Ahmadiyya

Elliot Colburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Pakistani Government following a recent spate of violence against the Ahmadi community including the desecration of mosques.

Elliot Colburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to monitor anti-Ahmadi rhetoric in (a) Punjab province and (b) Pakistan.

Leo Docherty: Protecting and promoting Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) remains central to the UK Government's human rights engagement in Pakistan. Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia and Minister responsible for Human Rights, raised the treatment of Ahmadi Muslims with Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada on 30 January. On 9 January, Minister of State for Development Andrew Mitchell raised the issue with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The British High Commission in Islamabad continues to engage at a senior level with government representatives and civil society, including on recent attacks on Ahmadi mosques.

Armenia: Azerbaijan

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the impact of recent military tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan on civilian farmers in the village of Tegh.

Leo Docherty: Although we have not made a specific assessment of the impact of military tensions on civilians in Tegh, the UK Government condemns in the strongest terms any military action that puts civilian lives at risk. We continue to urge both parties to refrain from further escalation and to abide by all existing commitments.

Central Asia: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions has he had with his counterparts in Central Asian states on (a) climate cooperation, (b) reducing methane emissions and (c) reducing CO2 emissions.

Leo Docherty: We regularly engage on climate change and reducing emissions in Central Asia, both bilaterally and through multilateral fora. For example, during his visit to Astana in March the Foreign Secretary signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kazakhstan to encourage collaboration in developing and applying hydrogen technology. The Minister for Europe has also raised climate issues in meetings with interlocutors from Central Asia, and we have dedicated officials based in the region who lead on climate and environmental matters for the UK. We provide funding to a number of projects in the region which aim to improve climate cooperation, and reduce the emissions produced by the Central Asian states.

Germany: Diplomatic Service

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many full time equivalent staff (a) make up a full compliment of staff at the British Embassy in Germany and (b) occupy a role primarily focussed on business relationships and trade at that Embassy.

Leo Docherty: In March 2023 the headcount number of FCDO staff working at the British Embassy Berlin was 20-29 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) UK-based staff and 70-79 FTE country-based staff. These figures do not take into account staff working at the Embassy employed by the Department of Business and Trade, other government departments and devolved administrations.

Japan: Diplomatic Service

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many full time equivalent staff (a) make up a full compliment of staff at the British Embassy in Japan and (b) occupy a role primarily focussed on business relationships and trade at that Embassy.

David Rutley: In March 2023 the headcount number of FCDO staff working at the British Embassy Tokyo was 20-29 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) UK-based staff and 70-79 FTE country-based staff. These figures do not take into account staff working at the Embassy employed by the Department of Business and Trade, other government departments and devolved administrations.

Transcaucasus: Roads

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to provide humanitarian support to people affected by shortages of food, medical and other supplies as a result of the closure of the Lachin Corridor in 2023.

Leo Docherty: The UK has a strong record of supporting humanitarian responses in this region and FCDO officials are in close contact with humanitarian agencies about the situation on the ground. Additionally the START FUND, a humanitarian response fund to whom the UK is a significant donor, has allocated £350,000 to the region to support those effected by the closure of the Lachin Corridor.

Transcaucasus: Roads

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken steps to press for the reopening of the Lachin Corridor; and what recent discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the reopening of the Lachin Corridor.

Leo Docherty: The UK Government has been vocal about the importance of re-opening the Lachin Corridor, including at the United Nations Security Council in New York on 20 December 2022 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna on 17 January 2023. This message was also conveyed by the Minister for Europe during his visit to Azerbaijan in February 2023. The UK Government will continue to support constructive dialogue in further contacts with the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments in the coming months.

Cyprus: Politics and Government

Paul Bristow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact on trade in the eastern Mediterranean of recognising the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Leo Docherty: In accordance with the rest of the international community, with the sole exception of Turkey, the UK does not recognise the self-declared 'Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus' as an independent state. The United Kingdom recognises the Republic of Cyprus as the sovereign authority for the island of Cyprus. Several UN Security Council Resolutions and other multilateral agreements also limit links between the UK and the north of Cyprus. We continue to believe that a just and lasting settlement in Cyprus is the best means of resolving the difficulties caused by the division of the island.

Pakistan: Oppression

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with Pakistani counterparts on the persecution of (a) Ahmadi Muslims and (b) Christians in that country.

Leo Docherty: Protecting freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), including for minority communities, remains central to the UK Government's human rights engagement in Pakistan. On 30 January, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia and Minister responsible for Human Rights, raised the treatment of Ahmadi Muslims and the need to safeguard the rights of religious minorities with Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada. Lord Ahmad also discussed the importance of promoting respect for all religions during his meeting with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on 14 December 2022.

Kosovo: Driving Licences

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress the Government has made o the driving license exchange between the UK and Republic of Kosovo.

Leo Docherty: The UK does allow the exchange of driving licences with certain countries, but Kosovo is not currently a designated country for this scheme. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has received a request from the Embassy of Kosovo to consider a possible reciprocal driving licence exchange agreement and is providing the necessary information to progress this.

EU Countries: Immigration Controls

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions the Government has had with the European Commission on proposals for the use of e-gates for British citizens travelling to and from the EU.

Leo Docherty: Some Member States already allow British citizens to use e-gates at airports in certain circumstances.Our priority is to minimise unnecessary delays for British citizens, including by engaging with the European Commission and Member States on the EU's Entry/Exit System to understand the impact on British citizens once operational.

Sudan: BBC Arabic Service

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he is taking steps to support the (a) operation and (b) continuation of BBC World Service’s emergency pop-up Arabic radio service for Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: We strongly value the work of the BBC World Service in promoting our values globally through its independent and impartial broadcasting.We welcome the BBC's decision to launch an Emergency Radio Service for audiences in Sudan. This will ensure that those in Sudan will maintain access to accurate news and impartial analysis from inside and outside of Sudan, serving to counter disinformation. It will also ensure individuals have access to information about developing events and access to supplies and services.

Vaccination

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to work with the international community restore access to immunisation services around the world.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted global health and immunisation. The UK Government is committed to supporting efforts to get routine immunisation back on track and has committed £1.65 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance from 2021-2025 to support their mission to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives from vaccine preventable diseases over this period.Alongside our Gavi investment, we are committed to working with countries and with the wider international community, to focus efforts on building stronger primary health systems for the future as a core part of restoring immunisation services around the world.

Sudan: Arms Trade

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) assess the efficacy of and (b) review the potential to expand the scope of the United Nations arms embargo on Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: There is a UN Arms Embargo and Sanctions Regime on Darfur which was renewed in March. There is also a longstanding bilateral UK arms embargo in place for the whole of Sudan. These regimes have been used to constrain the flow of weapons into Sudan. The UN Arms Embargo and Sanctions Regime on Darfur will be reviewed by September 2024.

Sudan: British Nationals Abroad

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department records how many (a) British nationals, (b) UK passport holders and (c) NHS employees still wish to be evacuated from Sudan following the end of flights from Wadi Seidna air base on 30 April 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Since 25 April we have assisted the departure of 1,243 British nationals through flights to Cyprus. Anyone still in Sudan should sign up for Travel Advice alerts.  We continue to communicate with British nationals through our Travel Advice and other targeted communications with those who have registered with us.

Sudan: British Nationals Abroad

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many (a) British nationals, (b) UK passport holders and (c) NHS employees have registered their presence in Sudan following the start of military action in that country on 15 April 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: As of 24 April, over 2,500 people had contacted the FCDO to either register their presence in Sudan or request assistance from there.Since 25 April the UK has supported the departure of 2,450 people, including British nationals, dependants, Sudanese NHS medical staff and other eligible nationals.

Developing Countries: Disease Control

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what financial support his Department is making available to tackle disease and infections in the developing world.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is committed to the fight against infectious diseases in the developing world and has a strong record of leadership in combatting their spread and impact. This includes our £1 billion contribution to the seventh replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; as well as £1.65 billion to Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives from vaccine preventable diseases by 2025. We also invest in world-leading Product Development Partnerships such TB Alliance for new drugs, the global non-profit FIND for new diagnostics, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC). Our funding for catalytic interventions brings down the prices of new products and tackles barriers to widespread access.

East Africa: Health Services

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help strengthen health systems and improve healthcare access for children across the East Africa region affected by (a) malnutrition and (b) preventable disease risks associated with drought.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is committed to addressing the deteriorating humanitarian situation across East Africa. In financial year 22/23 the UK met its £156 million commitment to provide life-saving aid for people across East Africa. This includes significant investment in health and nutrition interventions. For example, between April and September last year UK funding in Somalia delivered emergency health services to over 120,000 individuals including treatment of over 25,000 children under 5 years suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). In South Sudan, the UK-supported Health Pooled Fund provided 1.6 million treatments for common childhood diseases in 2022/23.

Developing Countries: Debts

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the recommendations of the International Development Select Committee in its report entitled Debt relief in low-income countries, HC 146, published on 10 March 2023, if he will hold discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on bringing forward legislative proposals to help ensure private lenders support lower-income countries in crisis by cancelling debt.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer work closely together on international issues, such as pressing for progress on sovereign debt treatment at the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Spring Meetings.The UK, alongside the G20 and Paris Club, expect private creditors to participate in debt restructurings on terms at least as favourably as bilateral (i.e. country) creditors.The Government is focused on delivering a market-based (contractual) approach to private sector participation, for example recently developing Majority Voting Provisions for private loans.

Sudan: British Nationals Abroad

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many (a) British nationals, (b) UK passport holders and (c) NHS employees were evacuated from Sudan on US Navy Ship Brunswick on 30 April 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: We are currently aware of 28 British nationals who departed Sudan on the USNS Brunswick on 30 April 2023, alongside a number of other nationalities. As this was not a UK-run evacuation, we are in the process of reconciling the information we hold on eligible persons in Sudan, including NHS employees, who may have departed on the Brunswick.

Sudan: Humanitarian Aid

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps the Government has taken to work with the international community to ensure that people in Sudan who have been impacted by the recent violence have access to (a) drinking water, (b) food, (c) shelter and (d) healthcare.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The humanitarian situation in Sudan is worsening. The FCDO's top humanitarian priority is to secure workable humanitarian access, including security assurances for humanitarian agencies. There can be no international aid without safe and reliable access. We are coordinating with the international humanitarian system to support the UN to be able to scale-up delivery within Sudan so they can move quickly to respond as soon as access improves. On 4 May the UK announced an initial £5 million allocation which will help to provide urgent assistance to tens of thousands of refugees and returnees in South Sudan and Chad fleeing violence in Sudan. The UK is a committed donor in Sudan, having spent over £250 million in humanitarian aid in the last five years.

Sudan: Peacekeeping Operations

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with (a) the African Union, (b) United Nations Security Council members, (c) the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, (d) states neighbouring Sudan and the Gulf of Arabia , and (e) other international partners on the (i) prospects for and (ii) potential impact of a peacekeeping force in Sudan with a mandate including civilian protection and humanitarian access.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK Government is pursuing all diplomatic avenues, including Ministerial engagement with counterparts from African, Quad (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, US) and European countries and Security Council member states, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union and United Nations to end the violence and de-escalate tensions in Sudan. As penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council, the UK will lead the renewal of the mandate for the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). Working with Council Members, we will ensure that UNITAMS has an effective mandate to address the situation on the ground.

Sudan: Sanctions

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Executive Order on Imposing Sanctions on Certain Persons Destabilizing Sudan and Undermining the Goal of a Democratic Transition, published by the President of the United States of America on 4 May 2023, whether he is taking steps to (a) support the preparation of, (b) complement and (c) mirror sanctions imposed by the United States of America as a result of that Order.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK Government does not speculate on future designations as to do so could reduce their impact. Our immediate priority is to work with our international partners, including the US, to ensure a cessation of violence across Sudan, and secure humanitarian access. All parties to the conflict must uphold their responsibility to protect civilians and ensure humanitarian assistance can be delivered quicky and safely.

Sudan: Armed Conflict

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support evidence preservation to enable future accountability for potential war crimes and international crimes within the conflict in Sudan; and what steps he is taking to increase capacity to monitor and respond to atrocity risks within the conflict in Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK has consistently supported the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the situation in Sudan and continues to provide practical assistance to the Court in its work. This includes additional finance and improved investigative capability. We are scoping potential remote monitoring mechanisms with the capacity to collect and preserve digital content pertaining to potential international crimes.

Sudan: Humanitarian Aid

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his department is supplying funding for (a) United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and (b) other aid organisations requiring humanitarian supplies, in Sudan's neighbouring countries following the start of military action in that country on 15 April 2023.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Before the onset of violence nearly 16 million people throughout Sudan required humanitarian aid. The situation has deteriorated significantly since then with conflict displacing hundreds of thousands and relief operations largely at a standstill owing to insecurity. The UK is working in concert with our international partners to improve humanitarian access and to scale-up aid delivery. On 4 May the UK announced an initial £5 million allocation which will help to provide urgent assistance to tens of thousands of refugees and returnees in South Sudan and Chad fleeing violence in Sudan. We will share details about implementing agencies in due course. The UK provides financial support to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the Red Cross' Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF). Both mechanisms are responding to the crisis. The UK is a committed donor in Sudan, having spent over £250 million in humanitarian aid in the last five years.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Science and Technology: Grants

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2023 to Question 181131, on Science and Technology: Grants, whether her Department will classify money allocated to UKRI or the National Academies which may be used for administrative, delivery or set up costs as research and development spending.

Paul Scully: We define R&D as per the Frascati definition in line with international standards. This explicitly includes the cost of administering R&D: "Government budgets for R&D may include a provision for the cost of administering R&D programmes and projects, including for example the formulation of calls, competitive procurement processes and grant solicitations, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of programmes". The Frascati definition highlights that "such delivery costs can be an integral part of the process required to ensure that the funds are used for R&D and for meeting the government's objectives". UKRI is already one of the most efficient funders of research in the world, and we are pushing this even further with the Simpler and Better Funding programme.

Science and Technology

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what metric her Department uses to determine whether the UK is a global science and technology superpower.

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department intends to publish the criteria for the determination of whether the UK is a global science and technology superpower.

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the potential effect of the UK’s departure from the EU on the UK's status as a global science and technology superpower.

Paul Scully: Building on the UK’s trillion dollar tech industry, this government is creating an environment to grow and scale large globally competitive science and technology companies that drive growth in the economy and high-skilled employment opportunities for citizensOur Science and Technology Framework sets out how we will do this, including attracting and retaining the brightest talent and leveraging post-Brexit freedoms to be at the frontier of setting standards and shaping regulationsThere is no one metric that will determine whether the UK is a global science and technology superpower. We will monitor a range of indicators and international comparisons across the innovation systemWe are working across Government and sectors to ensure progress against this Framework. By the end of 2023, we will publish an update setting out the progress that we have made, and the further action that must be taken on our path to being a Science and Technology Superpower by 2030.

Horizon Europe

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the time taken to conclude negotiations on association with the Horizon Europe programme on the science industry.

Paul Scully: The EU’s delays for over two years have caused serious and lasting damage to the UK R&D, fusion and Earth observation sectors. We established the Horizon guarantee to ensure there is no loss in funding for the UK sector. While the Government is engaging constructively with the EU, and hope that negotiations will be successful, the UK’s participation would have to be on fair and appropriate terms and address the lasting impact of the delays on UK participation rates across the programmes.

Department For
science, Innovation
and Technology: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much her Department has spent on radio adverts in each of the the last five years broken down by radio station.

Paul Scully: The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology was established in February 2023. Since its creation the Department has spent nothing on radio adverts.

Semiconductors

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when she plans to publish the UK Semiconductor Strategy.

Paul Scully: The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has been reviewing the UK government’s approach to the semiconductor sector and intends to set out its plans for the sector in the forthcoming UK Semiconductor Strategy. The Strategy will be published as soon as possible.

Plastics: Health Hazards

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make it his policy to establish a dedicated ringfenced fund for research into the links between plastic pollution and trends in human health.

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to establish a dedicated research fund into the impact of plastic pollution on human health.

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, for what reason a ringfenced fund for research on the effect of plastic pollution on the human body has not been set up.

George Freeman: The Government is investing in R&D to address a range of emerging public health challenges, including the impact of nano- and microplastics. Through UKRI’s Medical Research Council, the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College have a broad programme of activity to study exposure to these materials and their impact on human health. The Government does not generally ringfence funding for particular areas of research. In line with the Haldane principle, UKRI and other Government funders award grants to the best proposals that are submitted through a process of expert peer review.

Religious Hatred: Internet

Sarah Owen: To ask Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology,  whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the potential merits of including provisions in the Online Safety Bill on tackling online hate language targeted at religious groups.

Paul Scully: Under the Online Safety Bill, all user-to-user and search services will need to put in place systems and processes to prevent their users from encountering priority illegal offences, including religiously aggravated public order and harassment offences. They must also swiftly remove other illegal content once it has been reported or they become aware of its presence.Services which are likely to be accessed by children will also be required to protect child users from content and activity that is harmful to children, including content that is abusive or incites hatred on the basis of religion.Where content does not meet the criminal threshold and is accessed by adults, the Bill will ensure that the largest services remove content that is prohibited in their terms of service, such as hate speech. These services must also offer their adult users tools which reduce the likelihood that they see certain categories of content, or alert them to the nature of it. These tools will specifically apply to content which is abusive, or incites hatred, on the basis of religion.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Liquefied Natural Gas: Methane

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what regulatory checks his Department requires to ensure that (a) US fracked LNG imported into the UK as (i) certified gas or (ii) responsible gas has had methane leakage controlled in its production and shipment by sea and (b) UK consumers are not being charged a premium for certified gas from the US that has not had methane leakage controlled in its production and shipment.

Graham Stuart: The Government does not require certification of methane emissions from the full lifecycle of production and shipping for imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The UK is fully supportive of rapid national and global action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, including methane, as part of its commitment to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The UK’s Methane Memorandum, published in November 2022, takes stock of the significant progress the UK has made in this area. It highlights the Government’s commitment to explore and implement further measures in energy, waste and agriculture sectors, and the Government's international work to tackle methane emissions.

Warm Home Discount Scheme: Parents

Samantha Dixon: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of expanding the eligibility criteria of the Warm Homes Discount Scheme to cover parents of children with special educational needs.

Amanda Solloway: The Warm Home Discount prioritises people who are most at risk of being in fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is a combination of low incomes and high energy costs, so the scheme is targeted at those on means tested benefits whose homes are expensive to heat. Parents of children with special educational needs do not automatically fall into that category. These households may be able to speak to their energy supplier about being added to their Priority Services Register, which provides additional support for vulnerable households, such as priority support in an emergency.

Heat Pumps

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when his Department plans to publish performance data from the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project.

Graham Stuart: Interim performance data from the Government-funded Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project was published by the Energy Systems Catapult in March 2023 and is available to download from their website at https://es.catapult.org.uk/news/heat-pumps-shown-to-be-three-times-more-efficient-than-gas-boilers/. The Government expects the final performance data to be published after the project concludes, in summer 2024.

Solar Power

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero,  if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing mandated community benefit criteria for new solar developments.

Graham Stuart: Solar developers offer a range of community benefit schemes. These include funding for environmental enhancements, job schemes and energy discounts. Other schemes offer investment in local infrastructure, such as faster broadband, electric vehicle charging points or energy efficiency measures. The Government considers these schemes are best agreed locally and voluntarily to ensure they meet the needs of the local area.

Poverty: Parkinson's Disease

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that people with Parkinson's Disease do not enter poverty due to the cost of energy bills in winter 2023-24.

Amanda Solloway: The Autumn Statement set out a commitment to work with consumer groups and industry to consider the best approach to consumer protection from April 2024. As part of this work, the Government is working with disability organisations, assessing the need for specific support for disabled people. Officials are considering the options and proactively discussing these with stakeholders. In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments.

Hydroelectric Power: Rivers

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the plausibility of extracting hydroelectrically-generated power from (a) the River Thames and (b) other major UK rivers.

Graham Stuart: Hydropower accounts for approximately 2% of total electricity generation in the UK. Much of this deployment is in a small run-of-river projects, which use the natural downward flow of rivers and tend to be relatively expensive. Studies in Scotland, England and Wales indicate that there is a maximum remaining technical potential of around 1.5GW for small-scale hydro, including in rivers in the UK. The viable remaining resource is less than 1GW due to economic and environmental constraints. This represents less than 1% of total generation capacity, and cannot therefore be a significant contributor to the UK's future generation plans.

UK Emissions Trading Scheme

Craig Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when he expects the Emissions Trading Scheme Authority to publish the full Government response to the consultation on Developing the UK ETS.

Graham Stuart: The Government has not yet announced a publication date for the UK ETS Government Response. The Government made a wide range of proposals in the consultation and will ensure the Government Response reflects on the evidence and implications from the consultation and offers sensible final proposals and next steps.

Geothermal Power: District Heating

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has taken recent steps to facilitate research on geothermal district heating.

Graham Stuart: The Department has contributed £31m in funding to UK Geoenergy Observatories, which will conduct geothermal energy-related research. This is in addition to supporting deep geothermal feasibility projects at the Eden Project in Cornwall and in Stoke-on-Trent. The Department has also awarded £9.7m in capital funding to two district heating projects in Gateshead and County Durham via the Heat Networks Investment Project, which will use geothermal heat from mine-water to heat local communities. The Government has commissioned a report, led by the British Geological Survey, into the potential contribution of deep geothermal energy in the UK. The report is expected to be published this year.

Heat Pumps: Southampton Itchen

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of domestic households that use (a) air source and (b) ground source heat pumps for their heating in Southampton Itchen constituency.

Graham Stuart: The Microgeneration Certification Scheme Installations Database shows that, as of 31st March 2023, 33 air source heat pump (representing 0.1% of domestic households) and no ground source heat pump installations were registered in the Southampton Itchen constituency. The database does not include all heat pump installations. Those installed without Government funding support, such as in new buildings, are not typically recorded in the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Installations Database.

Geothermal Energy: Investment

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help increase investment in geothermal technologies.

Graham Stuart: In the British Energy Security Strategy, the Government committed to “explore all possible renewable opportunities afforded by our geography and geology, including tidal and geothermal.” Geothermal power has been an eligible electricity generating technology for the Contracts for Difference scheme since its introduction. The Government anticipates that geothermal power projects may bid into the scheme's emerging technologies pot of the fifth allocation round this year. The Government keeps the scheme under review and will consider the role of geothermal power in light of the results.

Geothermal Power: Carbon Emissions

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of deep geothermal energy on the rate of decarbonisation in the energy sector.

Graham Stuart: In the British Energy Security Strategy, the Government committed to “explore all possible renewable opportunities afforded by our geography and geology, including tidal and geothermal.” The British Geological Survey has an active programme of research on the UK potential for geothermal power. The Government will consider the role of geothermal power in light of the results.

Electricity Generation

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2023 to Question 180681 on Electricity Generation, what the constraint payment total was in each year from 2105 to 2019.

Andrew Bowie: The total cost of constraint payments for each year are: £370 million in 2015, £349 million in 2016, £481 million in 2017, £514 million in 2018 and £585 million in 2019. These costs are nominal for each respective year. These data are publicly available at https://data.nationalgrideso.com/balancing/constraint-breakdown.

Energy Bills Rebate: Voucher Schemes

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many people have not taken up their entitlement to energy bills support scheme vouchers for prepayment meters in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales as of 2 May 2023.

Amanda Solloway: The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) collects information about the payments made under the Energy Bills Support Scheme GB (EBSS GB) in England, Wales and Scotland. Transparency data on Energy Bills Support Scheme GB payments made by electricity suppliers to customers is reported monthly and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-payments-made-by-electricity-suppliers-to-customers.Between October-February, 986,790 vouchers were issued and 735,620 were redeemed in Scotland (251,170 unredeemed). Between October-February, 7,422,090 vouchers were issued and 5,520,140 were redeemed in England (1,901,950 unredeemed). Between October-February, 458,070 vouchers were issued and 355,060 were redeemed in Wales (103,010 unredeemed).

Energy Bills Rebate: Voucher Schemes

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many people in Scotland have not taken up their entitlement to energy bills support scheme vouchers for prepayment meters as of 2 May 2023, broken down by Parliamentary constituency.

Amanda Solloway: The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero collects information about the payments made under the Energy Bills Support Scheme GB (EBSS GB) in England, Wales and Scotland. Transparency data on Energy Bills Support Scheme GB payments made by electricity suppliers to customers is reported monthly and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-support-scheme-payments-made-by-electricity-suppliers-to-customers.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many Warm Home Discount payments were issued in the period between (a) March 2021 and March 2022 and (b) March 2022 and March 2023.

Amanda Solloway: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 April 2023 to Question 181006.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much his Department has spent on radio adverts in the last five years broken down by radio station.

Graham Stuart: Spend by DESNZ (including spend as BEIS) on broadcast radio in the last five years totalled £3,717,221, as provided by the contracted media buying agency, MGOMD. This excludes spend from cross-channel partnerships.

Wind Power: National Grid

Dawn Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and proportion of wind turbines were switched off due to a lack of capacity in the national grid in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.

Graham Stuart: The Government does not hold data on the proportion of wind turbines switched off in 2021 and 2022 to manage network capacity constraints.

Insulation: Housing

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much his Department has spent on (a) home insulation and (b) retrofitting in each year since 2010.

Graham Stuart: The Government provides funding for home insulation and retrofit measures through the Home Upgrade Grant, Green Homes Grant – Local Authority Delivery, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Public Sector Decarbonisation schemes and previously the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme. The most recent funding allocations from these schemes can be found on GOV.UK.

Electricity Generation: Cooperatives

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many community energy initiatives have been established since 13 January 2023.

Graham Stuart: The Government does not and has never kept a count of community energy initiatives. The Government encourages community energy groups to work closely with their local authority to develop community energy projects and provides funding to support this. The Government also convenes the Community Energy Contact Group with representative from across the sector to strengthen engagement.

Green Deal: Appeals

Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many appeals have been made to the First Tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) Environment on Green Deal mis-selling by Home Energy and Lifestyle Management offered by his Department and its predecessors.

Graham Stuart: The Department is aware of 20 such appeals that have been made to the General Regulatory Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal.

Energy Bills Rebate

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will extend the application deadline for the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding scheme beyond 31 May 2023 in the context of that date not being published on the scheme’s eligibility information or application form on the Gov.UK website as at 9 May 2023.

Amanda Solloway: The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding launched on 27th February providing 3 months for eligible applicants to apply before the 31st May deadline, which the Government believes is sufficient time for households to claim their support. As such, there is currently no proposal for the deadline for the scheme to be extended. The closure date for the scheme has now been included on the GOV.UK webpage.

Home Energy and Lifestyle Management

Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many appeals have been referred to his Department on Green Deal mis-selling by Home Energy and Lifestyle Management.

Graham Stuart: A total of 348 Homes Energy and Lifestyle Management (HELMS) cases have been referred to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (or predecessors at the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) for review. 189 of these cases are live; 159 have been completed.

Energy Company Obligation: Take-up

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent steps the Government has taken to maximise the (a) take up and (b) speed of the roll out of the ECO+ scheme.

Graham Stuart: The Great British Insulation Scheme is expected to be established by summer 2023. Obligated energy suppliers are able to deliver measures before this, from 30 March 2023, following the publication of the Government response to last year’s consultation on scheme design. Yearly targets will be set, including minimum levels of delivery, whilst allowing energy suppliers to progress more rapidly and have measures counted towards their overall scheme obligation. The Government is also working with energy suppliers to launch a new service in the summer to allow householders to check eligibility and refer themselves to the scheme.

Heat Pumps: Housing

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate his Department has made of the number and proportion of homes that are not suited to heat pump installation; and what steps his Department is taking to (a) support and (b) provide heating alternatives to those homes to improve their energy efficiency.

Graham Stuart: An estimated 90 per cent of British homes have sufficient energy efficiency and electrical connections to be heated with a low temperature heat pump (operating with a flow temperature at 45°C). Other considerations, such as having sufficient space for the outdoor unit and compliance with planning requirements, must also be considered. For buildings that are not suitable for a low temperature heat pump, alternative low carbon heating technologies, including biomass and high temperature heat pumps (with flow temperatures above 45°C), are available. Government policy supports the installation of these technologies where appropriate.

Energy: Conservation

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many Low Carbon Heating Technician apprenticeship places there (a) were in 2022 and (b) are in 2023.

Graham Stuart: The Low Carbon Heating Technician apprenticeship is in development. It is anticipated that this apprenticeship will be ready for delivery by September 2023. An alternative option for apprentices looking to enter the heating sector is the Plumbing and Domestic Heating Technician apprenticeship. 3,780 individuals started this apprenticeship in the 2021/2022 academic year. 2,400 individuals started this apprenticeship in the first two quarters of the 2022/2023 academic year (August - January). Data regarding apprenticeships is published by the Department for Education.

Heat Pumps: Manufacturing Industries

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an estimate of (a) the proportion of heat pumps installed in the UK that have been manufactured in the UK in each of (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022 and (b) in each case, the proportion that contain microchips manufactured in China.

Graham Stuart: In 2020, the Government published research that showed around 30 per cent of the heat pumps installed domestically were manufactured in the UK. This research did not consider the proportion of those heat pumps that contain microchips manufactured in China. Industry data shows that manufacturers from several different countries supply electronic circuit boards and semiconductors to the UK consumer appliance market. The supply chain is not reliant on manufacturers from any one country. The Government does not hold the above information for 2021 and 2022.

Geothermal Power

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of geothermal energy in district heating network schemes.

Graham Stuart: The Government has not undertaken a general assessment of the effectiveness of geothermal energy for district heating in the UK due to the small number of operational geothermal district heating schemes. Case studies have been developed for several geothermal schemes across Europe, which demonstrate that geothermal heat can be an effective low carbon heat source for heat networks.

Heat Pumps: Housing

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the (a) efficiency and (b) reliability of ground source heat pumps in residential properties.

Graham Stuart: As part of the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project, the Department funded the installation of 38 ground source heat pumps in residential properties across the UK, with monitoring equipment to assess the performance of the systems in situ. The Government expects the final performance data from this project, including data on the ground source heat pumps installed, to be published after the project concludes, in summer 2024.

Department for Transport

Railways: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether his Department plans to (a) retain, (b) replace or (c) revoke Regulation (EC) 1371/2007.

Jesse Norman: The Government is committed to ensuring that all rail passengers are protected by effective and comprehensive passenger rights. In this case, the Department for Transport intends (EC) 1371/2007 to remain in UK statute book after 2023.

Electric Vehicles: Charging Points

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he has made on increasing the number of charging points for electric vehicles in rural areas.

Jesse Norman: The Department does not hold a breakdown of rural chargepoint numbers. However, public charging devices have nearly quadrupled in over four years from 10,300 devices in January 2019 to over 40,000.

Cycling: Electric Vehicles

Darren Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending the classification of tricycles in the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles (Amendment) Regulations 2015 to account for the need for greater motor wattage for tricycles when climbing hills.

Jesse Norman: The Second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, published in July 2022, reaffirmed the Department’s commitment to making walking, wheeling and cycling the natural choice for millions more journeys. Equal access for disabled people is at the heart of this and the Department is keeping the prospect of changes to regulations on electric cycles, including tricycles, under review.

Railways: Enfield

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of trains did not arrive on-time between (a) 07:30 and 09:30 and (b) 17:00 and 19:00 at (i) Crews Hill, (ii) Gordon Hill and (iii) Grange Park rail stations in the last 12 months.

Huw Merriman: This Department does not hold data to that level of detail. However, I can confirm the proportion of trains which arrived on time (defined as less than one minute late against the public timetable) at those stations during the 2022/23 rail year was 86.9 per cent at Crews Hill, 86.8 per cent at Gordon Hill and 90.9 per cent at Grange Park. These compare to a National On Time average of 67.8 per cent across all operators for the same time period.

Rolling Stock: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains per train operating company went into service without a functional accessible toilet in the last 12 months.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of rolling stock which has entered service without a functioning accessible toilet in the last 12 months.

Huw Merriman: The Department does not hold this information.

Railways: Repairs and Maintenance

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Office of Rail and Road has taken to assess the safety of Network Rail’s Modernising Maintenance programme.

Huw Merriman: The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is monitoring Network Rail’s workforce modernisation plans to ensure that it is not compromising on efficient and safe delivery. The ORR attends the Network Rail Safety Validation panel that is working through the management of the change process that Network Rail is following. Network Rail continues to explore technological solutions that could be deployed to conduct maintenance more safely and efficiently. A good example of this is the adoption of drones which are already being used to supplement standard maintenance and inspection activities with various use cases identified including structures, track and overhead line equipment (OLE).

High Speed 2 Line: Leeds

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to review HS2 site safeguarding in Leeds after the report on bringing HS2 trains to Leeds is published.

Huw Merriman: The Integrated Rail Plan set out that safeguarding of the previously proposed high speed route north of East Midlands Parkway will remain in place until the conclusion of the HS2 to Leeds Study. The Government periodically reviews land requirements for the HS2 rail project and updates the extent of safeguarding accordingly.

Railways: Enfield

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of improving service levels at Enfield Chase rail station.

Huw Merriman: This Department and the train operating companies monitor demand closely to deliver a timetable which matches passenger needs and provides the right level and consistency of service. There are no plans to increase service levels at Enfield Chase station in the near future, although service provision remains under regular review.

Driving Tests

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of cancellation checking apps for driving tests on the (a) Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency booking system and (b) on individuals' ability to book a driving test.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to take steps to prevent cancellation booking apps from accessing the DVLA driving test booking system.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the financial impact on learner drivers of cancellation booking apps for driving tests.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to tackle the driving test backlog.

Mr Richard Holden: The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recognises there is a high demand for learners who are wanting to take their car practical driving test. The DVSA has a 24-week forward booking window and tests are not available to book beyond this. As the booking service is live, test appointments can also become available to book through other candidates cancelling, or rescheduling, their test.  The DVSA is aware of apps or bots that constantly search its systems for driving test slots. The DVSA does not employ, encourage or licence anyone to provide a cancellation checking service. Such apps or bots are not approved by the DVSA as they make it harder for candidates to get a test and can also result in people paying more for a test, than the official test fee. Using such services also means that any changes to the test may not necessarily be relayed to the candidate. To ensure its booking system is used correctly, the DVSA has:- stopped accepting new automatic online registrations to use its tests booking service – any new applications must be made by email, where they will be thoroughly checked by the DVSA.- stopped accepting any new registrations from companies who do not directly employ a driving instructor.- removed registrations not linked to driving instructors.- reduced the number of times a driving test appointment can be changed from 10 to the pre-pandemic limit of 6 and updated the test booking service terms and conditions to make it clear that users must not book tests and sell them for profit. Users found breaching the terms and conditions may have their accounts closed. The DVSA will continue to take steps to block cancellation services from accessing the booking system, which are having a positive impact. Since recent changes, there has been a significant drop in traffic to these services because the DVSA is successfully identifying and blocking apps or bots. The agency will also continue to inform candidates of the official channels for booking a test. The DVSA has taken measures to encourage learners to use the official booking site on GOV.UK by ensuring that it appears as high as possible on popular search engines and by promoting the official website on social media. As a result of the measures already taken by the DVSA, overall, since April 2021, an estimated 813,000 additional car test slots have been created. On average, the DVSA is creating approximately 35,300 extra car test slots each month. Actions already being taken to make this possible include asking all those qualified to conduct tests but who do not do so as part of their current day job to return to conducting tests, conducting out of hours testing, such as on public holidays and weekends, asking recently retired driving examiners to return, and recruiting more than 300 driving examiners across Great Britain.

Driving Tests: Waiting Lists

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the current average waiting time is in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London to take a driving test from the date of booking the test; and how many people are waiting to take a test in those areas.

Mr Richard Holden: As of 8 May 2023, within the Enfield North constituency and the London Borough of Enfield, there were 1786 car practical driving tests booked, and 71 car practical driving tests available within the next 24-weeks. Within London, as of 8 May 2023, there were 79,109 car practical driving tests booked, and 4,390 car practical driving tests available within the next 24-weeks.

Roads: Repairs and Maintenance

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport on 20 April 2023, Official Report, column 349, what the evidential basis is for his statement that Conservative councils repair around double the number of potholes as Liberal Democrat-controlled councils.

Mr Richard Holden: Conservative Party research, based on Freedom of Information requests to individual councils.

Roads: Bitumens

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the suitability of TS2010 asphalt for (a) the Strategic Road Network and (b) local roads in England.

Mr Richard Holden: The TS2010 is a specification that has been adopted in Scotland because it is considered that it offers durability benefits that are tailored to their environmental conditions. For the Strategic Road Network in England, National Highways has a wide range of Thin Surface Course Systems products some of which are very similar to TS2010 which provide the associated durability benefits while meeting National Highways’ additional safety requirements. For local roads in England, Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. The Act does not set out specific standards of maintenance, as it is for each individual local highway authority to assess which parts of its network need repair and what standards should be applied, based upon their local knowledge and circumstances.

Motorways: Safety Measures

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182917 on Motorways: Safety Measures, in what format his Department holds data on the distance between emergency refuge areas on dynamic hard shoulder smart motorways; and if he will publish that data.

Mr Richard Holden: National Highways holds extensive mapping data of assets across its network. However, this data is not held in the format requested. The Stocktake and Action Plan in 2020 launched a new standard to achieve closer spacing of places of relative safety (PRS), at 0.75 mile where feasible, up to a maximum of one mile. This was made a requirement for new All Lane Running (ALR) smart motorways schemes which entered the design phase from November 2020. Therefore, any ALR smart motorway scheme that entered the design phase after this date is required to meet these standards.

Roads: Repairs and Maintenance

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of placing highways maintenance funding on a multi-year basis.

Mr Richard Holden: After reviewing funding options, to help local authorities plan effectively for managing their roads and improve asset management, the Government has moved to a three-year funding settlement for local highway maintenance amounting to approximately £915 million of capital funding per year. This funding covers the financial years 2022/23 to 2024/25 and is for local highway authorities across England outside of London and the Mayoral Combined Authorities which receive separate funding. Mayoral Combined Authorities are receiving City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements amounting to £5.7 billion over five years, which includes funding for maintenance for their local highway networks.

Tonnage Tax

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the reforms to the Tonnage Tax scheme announced in the Spring Budget on employment in the maritime sector.

Mr Richard Holden: The Department welcomes the reforms announced by HM Treasury in the Spring Budget which are already resulting in renewed interest in the UK Tonnage Tax scheme.

Northern Ireland Office

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: Finance

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2023 to Question 148864 on Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: Finance, whether he plans to publish (a) that report's findings and (b) his Department's response to that report.

Mr Steve Baker: We continue to work with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) and colleagues across Government following the completion of the review and to consider the recommendations made. The recommendations and the Government’s response will be published in due course.

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the functioning of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Mr Steve Baker: An independent review of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) concluded in December 2022. The Government is reviewing the recommendations made in this report and these and the Government’s response will be published in due course. Guarantees of equality and rights, which recognise the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland, are a fundamental part of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, to which the Government is firmly committed.

Northern Ireland Government

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) help maintain the peace process in Northern Ireland and (b) uphold the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Steve Baker: The Government remains of the view that a devolved power-sharing government, in line with the vision of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, is the best framework to deliver good governance, peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland. The Government is working tirelessly towards that effect. As part of the recent events to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the Government highlighted the courage and foresight of those who contributed to the peace process and the need for that same leadership today. The Government will always work to maintain the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Civil Society: Finance

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 4.19 of the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, how much of the funding allocated to charities and community organisations has been distributed.

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 4.19 of the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, what plans her Department has to distribute this funding between charities and community organisations.

Stuart Andrew: As announced in the recent Spring Budget, the government will provide over £100 million of support for charities and community organisations in England. This will be targeted towards those organisations most at risk, due to increased demand from vulnerable groups and higher delivery costs, as well as providing investment in energy efficiency.Funding has not yet been distributed. Work is underway to finalise eligibility criteria and the delivery time frame for distribution. Further details will be announced as soon as possible, and these will be published on gov.uk.

Football: Women

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with representatives of the Football Association on recognising all female England players with a legacy cap.

Stuart Andrew: I welcome the FA’s recent decision to award all players who have represented the Lionesses with a legacy cap and number. All Lionesses, past and present, should be recognised for the important role they have played in the history and development of the women’s game, and I am pleased that this will now be the case.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Advertising

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department has spent on radio adverts in the last five years broken down by radio station.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Government runs a number of campaigns across all media channels. The channels selected for government paid marketing campaigns are driven by the target audience. We do not have a breakdown of spend per radio station.The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has spent £234,820.52 on radio advertising from 2018 - 2023. This includes the following: £197,039.52 spent in 2018 on the GDPR campaign and £37,781 spent in 2020 on the Broadband Upgrade Fund campaign.This also includes spending on digital and tech campaigns from 2018 - 2023 when the Department was previously the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and responsible for these sectors.

Journalism: LGBT+ People

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the report of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity's report entitled are media organisations adequately protecting LGBTQ+ journalists; and if she will make a statement.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Government has noted the report and is reviewing its findings.Regarding the findings on protections within media organisations for LGBTQ journalists from harassment and abuse, the Government is committed to helping ensure the safety of journalists in the UK. We have established a National Committee for the Safety of Journalists and published a National Action Plan which sets out how UK journalists will be protected from threats of violence or intimidation. This is part of the UK’s broader commitment to a free and open media.The UK has a proud history of LGBTQ rights, and some of the strongest legal protections in the world for LGBTQ people. Everyone should be treated fairly in the workplace, so that they can thrive and reach their full potential, including LGBTQ people.

Television Licences: Fees and Charges

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to abolish the BBC licence fee.

Sir John Whittingdale: We remain committed to reviewing the licence fee model ahead of the next Charter period to explore the potential for alternative ways to ensure the BBC remains appropriately funded over the long-term.We will set out further detail on our plans regarding the future of the licence fee in due course.

Musicians: Entry Clearances

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 May 2023 to Question 182767 on Musicians: EU Countries, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the creative sectors to understand whether and how the visitor system can be simplified for touring bands.

Sir John Whittingdale: Government ministers and officials regularly engage with industry representatives to inform policy development. In April, the Secretary of State hosted a music industry roundtable with broad representation from across the sector to understand the key challenges and opportunities facing the music sector, including how to address barriers to inbound and outbound touring. In May, the Secretary of State and Minister Julia Lopez met with music industry leaders, including executives from UK Music, LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment) and the Musicians' Union, to further discuss issues and solutions to support growth across the music sector and wider creative industries.

Wales Office

Sewage and Water: Wales

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2023 to Question 183233 on Sewage and Water: Wales, if he will take steps with the Welsh Government to publish a timetable for commencing section 48(1) of the Wales Act 2017.

David T C Davies: The devolution boundary for water and sewerage is aligned along water and sewerage undertaker appointment areas, some of which straddle the border. Where those areas are wholly or mainly in Wales they are devolved. My Department will work with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Government to agree a timetable for commencing section 48(1) of the Wales Act 2017 that best meets the needs of both governments and the water industry.